FC Porto is now five points behind the lead and has both the best attack (together with Benfica) and the best defence of the League (together with Casa Pia). The combination of the tie in the Lisbon derby and the victory at Estádio do Dragão (4-1) led to that, but Sérgio Conceição made it clear: “Despite the result and the victory, it was not one of the matches that pleased me the most”.

Unhappy with the “much” that the opponent was “allowed to do when in possession”, the blue and white coach wanted to have seen “a much more present and pressing team”, then turning the focus to “the next match that will be difficult and another final”. “There’s no point in looking at other matches when we have work to do, we can’t stumble”, the coach concluded, warning.

A double-edged sword
“Despite the result and the victory, it wasn’t one of the matches that I enjoyed the most. We allowed too much to the opponent, who had harmless possession, but their midfielders played more than we’d prefer. We had the pressure zone well in mind, but the timing wasn’t right. I didn’t like it very much, to be honest. We won 4-1 with nice goals and some quality plays, but, overall, I didn’t enjoy it as much as other matches. That’s my honest opinion.”

Merit and demerit
“Their midfielders played too comfortably in the first half, as we didn’t realise their fullbacks were playing low and that was the connection. We didn’t counter that, we knew of their individual quality and the positive momentum Famalicão is having, but the opponents have to feel difficulty in making more than three or four passes. We are a much more present and pressing team than this, understanding when the opponent starts their second phase of attacking and I think we recovered the ball low, 60 or 70 meters away from goal, when normally we are a team that understands the defensive organization better. The third goal came from a good recovery, but we usually do it in other areas. Today we weren’t able to do it because of the opponent’s merit and our own demerit as well.”

The score was short
“Some teams come here playing with more boldness, others stay behind defending in a low block and the space to play is different. We knew how Famalicão behaves, we worked on it, we warned the players, and we scored goals. Within that attacking process, when we had the ball, we could have and should have recovered in other areas of the pitch. What I saw from the bench, it felt that we never had control of the match, despite the result. It was a fully deserved victory, we could have scored more goals, but we allowed them to do too much when in possession.”

The tie in the derby 
“It’s no use if we don’t do our job. We don’t depend on ourselves and our focus and dedication is to work on a daily basis, looking ahead to the next match which will be difficult and another final. It’s no use looking at them when we have work to do, we can’t stumble. As I said, we don’t depend only on ourselves.”