Rui Vitória: "It is crucial to win"

Benfica closes the second round of the League Cu group stage at 8:15 pm on Wednesday at Estádio da Luz, with the home match against Paços de Ferreira. A win that, as the coach Rui Vitória stressed in the preview for BTV, allows the eagles to go the last access round to the final four at the top of group A. 

What can we expect from this match between Benfica and Paços de Ferreira?

We can expect a Benfica with a big ambition to win! We've already got three points in this competition, it's important to have three more. It is a difficult opponent, an opponent who tops the II Division, but with I Division squad. It has a coach [Vítor Oliveira] who I respect and admire, a coach who always has teams that are hard to beat. We will have a difficult match that we want to win.

Vítor Oliveira announced possible changes for this match, suggesting a different approach from the one the team has in the II Division matches. Do you think that Paços de Ferreira's squad is rich enough to create problems for Benfica?

It is a quality squad that was built to clinch promotion. The team has players on the bench who could easily be in the starting XI. This competition also allows him to hand minutes to the players. We will find an uninhibited Paços, wishing to make our life harder. But we want to win, to get the three points.

Sometimes this competition is seized to carry out some changes and even launch young players. You called up seven players from the academy for Monday's training session. That means there will be changes in the squad list?

Yes, there will be changes in the squad list, but they are different things. Yesterday [Monday] was a normal day, like many others we had in Seixal, bringing quality players to the training session, players we want to observe with the objectives we create over time. The match against Paços will have another objective: it is crucial to win and make a connection between last Saturday's match [against Feirense] and this one, knowing that we will have a new match on Saturday [away at V. Setúbal], 72 horas later. We will carry out some changes but always with the goal of winning the game.

Text: João Sanches

Pics: Tânia Paulo / SL Benfica