🎥 Bruno Lage: "We prepared the game in the best way to win"

Bruno Lage, the coach of the first team of the eagles, considers that this will be "another game of great difficulty" and, at a press conference, mentioned some of the virtues of the opponent. Benfica and Belenenses SAD face this Saturday (August 17), at 7:00 pm, at Estádio Nacional. 

Analysis to the opponent

"It's another game of great difficulty, first for what is the value of the players of Belenenses, their quality of play and the enormous quality of the coach. If you see their first match in the Championship, you'll see it was a game of great tactical richness, which showed the qualities of the team, both attacking and defending and that is why we have prepared ourselves in the best way to give our best response and according to what is our mentality. We prepared the game in the best way to win. We are thinking a lot about Belenenses, aware that it will be a huge challenge."

The strong presence of the fans at Jamor

"It's a sign that people like to follow us and I think it's very important for us to feel like they' re coming to see us play for our quality, for the way we play and enjoy our game to the fullest, which turns out to be one of the great goals of those who like football."

Benfica in Pot 2 of the Champions League

"You have to look at it from a deeper perspective. First, it's the theoretical side of the various teams, it's true that history weighs heavily on some clubs, but the transformation that football has suffered means that a team in pot 2 or pot 3 undergoes immediate transformation for what is the immediate financial stake in the construction of a particular squad. There are no easy games in the Champions League, so in order to make a campaign according to Benfica's magnitude, we have to be prepared to face every game as we have done so far."

Inclusion of Tomás Tavares

"He's another young man we already knew. Although he didn't play for the B team last year, he trained with us several times and because of the situation of right-back in the squad, we felt that it made no sense to give João Ferreira a chance without having Tomás [Tavares] present. After the EURO our idea was to give him a short holiday period and integrate him into the team as soon as possible."

Text: Diogo Nascimento

Pics: Cátia Luís / SL Benfica