“It was a victory of mentality and belief”

POST-MATCH

In a game with high "intensity, quality and patience", Benfica beat Braga, by 3-1. In his analysis of the match from matchday 31 of the Liga Betclic, Roger Schmidt was adamant that the Reds' victory was fair. 

THREE TOP GOALS CROWNED PATIENCE

“First of all, I want to offer my sincere condolences to my colleague, Rui [Duarte], Braga's coach. No one can imagine what it means to him and his family what happened two weeks ago. Losing a son... I wish him all the strength to deal with it, and to look forward... It was a difficult game, we started well, we created chances, but then Braga scored and we struggled before the half-time to accelerate the attack at the right time. After the break we put them under pressure, but we always had to be on the lookout for counter-attacks. There were a lot of fast players, good players too on an individual level, but we showed intensity, quality and patience. In the end, we scored three top goals and it's indisputable that we deserved to win the game. We invested a lot. It was a victory of mentality and belief. I'm proud of my players, it was important to win today [Saturday, April 27].” 

REFRESHMENT AND BELIEF WERE CATEGORICAL

“[Substitutions as a key to victory?] Indeed, but not just the substitutions. Alex [Bah] had problems today [Saturday, April 27]. After the break we tried to see if he could play a few more minutes, but he was in too much pain. Álvaro [Carreras] came on and had a good game, and so did Orkun [Kökcü] and Marcos Leonardo. They brought fresh insight, intensity and were involved in the goals. This was important, but the players also showed a good mentality, in my opinion. They believed in themselves, were focused on the game and accepted that today we would need some patience to find the space to score. It was a very good team performance.”

MARCOS LEONARDO DECISIVE

“We're very happy with what Marcos [Leonardo] did. He had a fantastic start at Benfica when he came in the winter, then he struggled with freshness and physical power, but today [Saturday, April 27] he showed some of the spirit and acumen of the beginning again. I'm happy for him. I don't think he's played more than 300 minutes and he's scored seven goals. It shows the quality he has. It's up to us to build him up and develop him so that he becomes a complete player, reliable tactically, a physical player who can play 90 minutes with stability. That's our task. It's very good that he came in the winter, because now he has more experience. We hope that next season he'll play a different role. Goals are always good arguments for playing, that's clear. All the strikers had the chance to play a few games in a row to prove themselves and fight for their position. We're pleased that Marcos [Leonardo] showed his finishing quality today. His second goal also showed his desire to score goals, and that's what we need.”

FOCUSED ON THE GOAL AND REACTING IN THE SECOND HALF

“To be honest, I've already talked a lot about this [fans' reaction and continuity at the club] in the last two press conferences, after the game against Farense and before the game against Braga. Today [Saturday, April 27], I want to talk about the fans who supported us in a very good way. I saw 50,000 people in the stadium supporting the team. It was very important, at a difficult moment in the game, that the fans were there and supported us. We talked about it [at half-time] and that we had to make them happy and show, from the first second of the second half, that we believed in victory. That's what we talked about, and we touched on some tactical issues. As I always say, this isn't about me. It's about Benfica, that we win games and stay in the competition. We know it's unlikely that we'll be champions, but we want to fight until the last second. That's what the players did tonight, in a very good way, against a good opponent. That's my focus.”