Pleased with the result in Europe, Sérgio Conceição asks the players to keep it up
A reaction worthy of Porto after the first two bad matchdays of the Champions League group stage allowed Sérgio Conceição’s men to seal their qualification to the Round of 16 top of the group. The fourth consecutive victory in European matches came at Estádio do Dragão, against Atlético Madrid and the score was a short 2-1.
After the match, the coach of the National Champions considered that the numbers on the scoreboard may seem balanced, but that wasn’t the case, as the Dragons were entirely “superior” to the opponent. Happy with what he saw from a “humble, compact and very aggressive team” that provided “moments that neared perfection”, Sérgio Conceição praised the “merit of the players” of whom he demands the same “winning mentality against opponents theoretically not so strong”. If that happens, he explained, he assures there will be “a lot of fight to the leader” of the championship.
Short result
“Had we been more efficient, the result would have been different, as it is normal, but that is part of the game and we will have to look at this one in a different way. Obviously, looking at the result, it might seem that the match was balanced, but it wasn’t. We were better, we were superior. It was a difficult match, because Atlético needed to win to stay in Europe, and that was clear in today’s starting team, with a lot of attacking players, and we understood that it was more important to look at ourselves than at the opponent. There are certain characteristics that Simeone’s teams don’t forget, and their players have been playing together for some time, we knew that and we focused on our dynamic with and without the ball. We had moments that neared perfection, we were a humble, compact and very aggressive team without the ball, and we should have been more effective with the ball, in front of Oblak, which is part of the evolution and natural growth of this team.”
The ugly duckling that played beautifully
“The analysis I make is that we are very happy for what we achieved. There were a lot of people, even within the club, who learned their lesson from this. We’re in the Round of 16, with the lead of the group, it’s fantastic and it’s all thanks to the players. We prepared the match, we had the idea of passing a message to Zaidu and the goals came from him, who is criticised for not being as gifted as so many people think he should be, but he has other fantastic things. If he had every feature people wish he had, he would play for the best club in the world, which for me is FC Porto, but not in terms of money. The moment of the match is how the goal came, thanks to the good technique that Zaidu has and keeps improving.”
The Champions League is done
“I want to think about Paços de Ferreira, about the championship, about in what we didn’t do last week. I can’t accept that a team that played likes this today, with all due respect to Santa Clara, Estoril and Rio Ave, loses points the way we did. We have to go for it, focus on the daily work and think that the real champions are the ones who always keep themselves at a high level. A play may not turn out well, there may be days of less inspiration, but the effort must always be there. This effort doesn’t mean that the team runs randomly on the pitch, not at all, it means running in an organized way, with a winning mentality, even against opponents that are theoretically not as strong, but that create different difficulties and we have to have different solutions for them. If we play like that, and have that mentality, we will go all the way, together and strong, and we will give a lot of fight to our rival in the lead.”
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