Thirteen games later, Sérgio Conceição lost for the first time as coach of FC Porto against Sporting in games for the Portuguese League (2-0). After the final whistle of another classic that ended with the team down to ten men, the blue and white coach commented that "it’s almost as if the championship was decided today, considering all the excitement", reminded that "we are in December", praised the posture of his players, who “never gave up", and promised "a positive response".

Three points lost
“I leave with the feeling that we have lost three points. Looking at the end of the match, the celebrations and everything that happened, I can see that we are a strong team. We are here to give a positive answer, it’s almost as if the championship was decided today, considering all the excitement. I do not say that victories are not celebrated, but we’re in December and we will look at the numbers in May. When I faced Sporting and we lost, there was some negative impact for us, but this was one of the games in which I saw Sporting with more difficulties, despite facing ten men."

Accuracy should have been better
"The goal their forward scored came in a situation that we worked on and that didn’t go well. We wanted a compact and short team that would limit as much as possible their depth. It didn’t go well at that time and this detail was important. We ended the first half on top of Sporting, we could have tied the match with Galeno, and then, at the start of the second half, Pepe was sent off, which left us with one man down. Even so, we never gave up, we continued to press, I remember a situation with Evanilson, Fran Navarro... it was recurrent, and our accuracy shooting for goal should have been better. We didn't do so well in that regard, but we created situations. It was normal for Sporting to create more as they had one more man on the pitch, because these teams study the opponent very well and because they have competent players. If we are not at our best throughout the game, we may lose in one or two details. For the way we were able to break their defence, I found this was one of the easiest games against them, so to speak. It seems counterintuitive because we lost 2-0, but that's what I felt as a coach and because I saw other things that the common people doesn't see.”

Pepe being sent-off
“I can’t comment on it, I haven't seen it yet. The VAR exists to analyse questionable situations and so that assistant referees don’t have to decide quickly and rashly on offsides, in case of errors. If the use of the VAR is consistent, there is no problem, but when we use it in some situations and not in other... in short, behind the VAR there are always people who have their opinions and sometimes make bad decisions. I'm not saying we lost because of this, but I have something very clear to say: we will look at the numbers in May.”

Hugo Viana in an uproar
“I have no idea why he was upset. But the provocations and this setting are already normal and natural. They shouldn't be, but they are.”