The 200th match for Sérgio Conceição in the lead of FC Porto ended as most of the previous 199 matches: with a blue and white victory. This Monday night, at Estádio dos Barreiros, the national champions had to wait for stoppage time to reach a fully deserved victory. After beating Marítimo, in Madeira, 2-1, the FC Porto coach made a point of sending “a word to Alfredo Quintana’s family”, speaking for “the entire blue and white family”, and “asking the All Mighty that everything turns out for the best”. As for the match, Sérgio Conceição referred to the opponent as “highly competent”, in a “difficult” match where the Dragons has to “try something different” to break the tie that was far from pleasing the coach, who made a point at stating that “the team knew these were three important points”.

Fight, Quintana!
“First of all, I want to send a word to Alfredo Quintana’s family. Tell them that, right now, we are all praying for him and asking the All Mighty that all goes for the best. The blue and white family wishes them the best, especially my work group, from one family to the other. Then, I want to thank my players for their fantastic gesture after the end of the match, as they offered me a celebration shirt, for my 200 matches as the FC Porto coach, a path that has been threaded with passion, ambition, and with many of the players, who have been here with me from the start. To those who left since, but were part of my group, and to those that joined since, thank you.”

Marítimo organized in the back
“Marítimo played a competent match. We knew and I know that their team has good players, above average individually. That means that, if the team remains as organized as they were today, working this well on the defence for so long into the match, they will have enough quality on the attack to make the difference and pose problems to the opponents. It’s true that they were doing well in the match, not just in spreading the lines on the defence, to try to stop our plays from the wings. In the centre, they always had a lot of players, pressing and making our possession hard. It’s always a difficult match. We scored, created another situation where we hit the post... And then, Zaidu, in a corner-kick, was almost alone, but the communication wasn’t the best. I don’t think it was the combination, it was a failed corner-kick, and we then conceded the tie. All this makes the match harder, as the opponent builds confidence, and they are in need of points. They felt comfortable defending in a low block, almost in their area. It was up to me, with the players I had on the bench, to try something different. I made a few changes, as I realised we didn’t need that much physical power, what we did need was players who could find spaces where there was none and break their defence.”

Closer to victory
“I fully trust my players. Even if we were unprotected in the back, with the same numbers as their attackers, we knew these were three important points. As the championship goes on, we realise that we can’t let the distance to our rival increase. We need to shorten it and we tried everything to win the match here. We were happy in the end, we had that little hint of luck, which is also important and we have been missing it at times. As we missed it last match, when Boavista scored from a corner-kick that shouldn’t have been called. Tonight, from a ball under control for Zaidu, there’s a corner-kick. In that somewhat strange corner, we conceded a goal. We have been missing that little bit of luck, but with belief and determination... I want to conclude leaving a word to those who went in, and I’m not talking about Francisco [Conceição], I’m talking about Marko [Grujic]. With two minutes to go, he went in with a strong determination, as he knew it was important to hold on to a vital result. I’m talking about Toni [Martínez], who lost the ball in the attack, and then ran back 20 or 30 metres to recover it on the defence. Those are important signals I get from my work group. We might not always win just for that, but we will definitely be closer to victory.”

Classic against Sporting
“This will be an important match. If we want to fight for the championship, this will be an important match for us. We need to go for the same as always, the victory.”

200 matches as the coach of the Dragons
“Some matches were fantastic. I’m referring to the preparation and the interpretation of the strategy for the match. I remember Leipzig, for the Champions League, or Juventus, which was also a great match we played. And I think all the matches that earned us titles. We do not celebrate victories at this club, we celebrate titles. These were the culmination of many matches that ended in five titles, but we’re not done here.”

Busy calendar
“We played five matches in 15 days, that’s tremendous. And all matches are difficult, as they may be decisive for us and for our opponents, who also know the difficulties we will pose them. Great clubs enjoy these moments and we are ready for them.”

Francisco Conceição 
“I was never under pressure to send in this or that player. I follow my own mind, and the opinion of my coaching team, but, in the end, Sérgio Conceição is the one making the decisions. Because I’m the one to take the blame as well. Francisco is a kid that is just starting, he has been playing for a couple of minutes, and his entire career in the First League is in front of him. And it’s the same for many kids in the B team, who we are keeping an eye on, and may be called if and when I see fit.”