"A Benfica-style display"

POST-MATCH

Benfica's emphatic win over FC Porto (4-1), in the clássico of matchday 11 of the Liga Betclic, was achieved with “90 minutes of enormous quality”, as Bruno Lage said in his analysis of the match that took place at the Estádio da Luz on Sunday, November 10.

PROUD BENFICA FANS

"I think it's not just the Third Ring, all Benfica fans should be proud of what we did today, which was a Benfica-style display, from the first minute to the last, with a great display, a Benfica-style display, and it's a very fair victory for us. It's always gratifying to play at the Estádio da Luz with the atmosphere as it was today. Then again, this is our life, we work hard to put in performances of this quality every three days. When we have less good moments, we have to be united, and I always felt the team was united, not suspicious of anything, believing in the work being done, and, three days after [the game with Bayern Munich], we put in this Benfica-style display."

FIRST LINE OF PRESSURE WITH RESULTS

"[Florentino and Aursnes in the first line of pressure] It wasn't really Florentino, it was more Kökcü. FC Porto have interesting exits through their goalkeeper, and we tried to nullify that. We really applied excellent pressure. Very good work from the whole coaching staff, we analyzed the situation very well. I'm not even speaking for myself, it was really the idea of our assistants, Luís [Nascimento], who came up with the idea of cutting off the goalkeeper's line of passing, starting to press and not letting the opponent... if he went long, he'd go long to the midfield area, where we could win the first or second ball. It went well for us in the sense that FC Porto started the 2nd half with the goalkeeper kicking the ball forward. That's our job, to try to put the game into perspective, define the best strategy for the game, but above all, to value what we did for 90 minutes with the ball."

REACT IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY 

"We always had to react. Whenever the moment isn't right, we have to react in the best way, and what's important to note is the Benfica-style display we had today [Sunday, November 10]. We always think the same way, I said it yesterday [Saturday, November 9], I'm saying it today [Sunday, November 10]. We always prepare for the game with the ball, what's the best way to have the ball, our attacking moment is with the ball, and from there we figure out if this is the best strategy to win the game, how we're going to defend. We did this with Atlético de Madrid, Bayern Munich and FC Porto. That's how we work, so the most important thing is that, in every bad moment, the team manages to react and put in a Benfica performance like it did today [Sunday, November 10], and every three days we continue to grow, evolve, have more performances like this and be more consistent."

CONTINUE TO CONSOLIDATE PROCESSES

"It's important to note that nobody wins championships on matchday 10, and the Portuguese league has been an example of this. We've seen several teams start ahead and then fail to finish 1st. It's not just this season, there have been examples in several seasons. For us, it's an important victory, because it reinforces even more, especially on the part of the players, their belief in the work we're doing. For our part, what we have to do is be more solid, consolidate processes and be more consistent in our performances. Right now, it's on our hands to get to 1st [place]. At the moment, we have that disadvantage, it's eight points, we have a game in hand. We have to keep growing the team, be more consistent, more solid, and put in more performances like the one we put in today [Sunday, November 10]. That's the most important thing for us, to focus on ourselves, and that in two weeks' time - we've now lost practically all our players, we're down to six or seven - we've already got an upcoming match in the Portuguese Cup, against Estrela da Amadora, which we want to win. Our focus has to be on that, on the process and the growth of the team, and winning the next game"

GETTING TO THE END WITH MORE POINTS THAN THE RIVALS IS THE GOAL

"Yesterday [Saturday, November 9], if I'm not mistaken, the word 'decisive' was used in the conference, and I reinforced it: [winning the derby] isn't decisive, but it is important. When we arrived, we were already five points down. What we want is to get to the end and have more points than our opponents, whether Sporting or FC Porto, so every game is going to be important. You're telling me that the game with Sporting is next month, I can't tell you... I know it's now next month, after the break, but I know I've got Estrela da Amadora right now, after the Champions League game, and then the other games, so they're all important games. What we look at is the next game. We have the game with Mafra to prepare for the cup game against Estrela da Amadora."

STOPPAGE OF PLAY AT 39'

"You said the 39th minute, and in mine it was the 37th minute, and I even thought it was a tribute to the 37th, to the title we had won here, as a coaching team."