"We didn't transfer what we did in pre-season onto the pitch"

POST-MATCH

After the 2-0 loss against Famalicão, on matchday 1 of the Liga Betclic 2024/25, Roger Schmidt regretted that Benfica's display didn't reflect the good feelings left during pre-season and assured that the team has the capacity and quality to do better. 

GAME ANALYSIS

"First, congratulations to Famalicão. I think they deserved to win the game. They put in a good display and were very fresh and compact. We have to admit that they had the better chances during the game. It's difficult for me to explain and analyze this match. All my players were very motivated to put in a good performance. They did very well during the pre-season, in training and in private matches. But today [Sunday, August 11] proved once again that pre-season ends with the first [official] game and that we have to be at our best. We didn't do that. We weren't able to transfer what we had done in pre-season onto the pitch, and our display wasn't good with or without the ball. Basic aspects, such as duels and second balls, were almost all Famalicão's fault. We were compact and solid in pre-season, but today we lost that ability. With the first goal, things became even more difficult. The opposition gained confidence, and we tried to create chances. We had a few, but far from what we wanted. We have the ability to play much better. The players weren't at their usual level either. They weren't at their best and that's my responsibility because, after five weeks of pre-season, I expected them to be in great shape. They were in great shape until the day before the game, but today we didn't manage to show that on the pitch."

LACKED MORE AGGRESSION AND SPEED

"I don't think we were compact, aggressive or quick enough in our positioning to cover all the spaces we saw on the pitch. We arrived late [to the duels] and sometimes Famalicão's players had a lot of time to find solutions between the lines. We could have done a lot better. In midfield, with Barreiro and Florentino, we're very strong at winning balls back in front of the center backs. It's been a weapon throughout pre-season, but today we lost several duels and weren't able to anticipate passes in the best way. As I said before, we had a few flaws, and that was one of them."

SQUAD LIST BASED ON COMMITMENT

"[Neres] can be a player capable of winning duels, creating chain reactions, it's always important, but the situation is very clear. The player wants to leave Benfica, he's in very concrete talks with a new club. The clubs are in contact, and of course I need players, especially at the start of the season, who are fully committed to Benfica. That's why he wasn't in the team, and Arthur Cabral too. Today, we had two strikers in the team, Pavlidis and Marcos Leonardo. That was my decision."

REACTION IS AN OBLIGATION

"Of course we wanted to use the momentum to start the new season in a very positive way. The fans supported us throughout the game, and it's normal to be disappointed after the match. As a Benfica team, expectations are very high, and you have to deal with the pressure. Today, we lost the game, and the only thing we can do is show a reaction in the next game, because we can't win this game anymore, it's lost. We're not happy with our performance, we're very disappointed with the way we played, and we have to do better next week."