"Play a very good game and advance in the competition"

PREVIEW

After winning the 8th League Cup, Bruno Lage expects a "difficult match" this Tuesday, January 14, against Farense, in the last 16 of the Portuguese Cup, at 8:15 pm, at the Estádio de São Luís. At the press conference at Benfica Campus on the eve of the match, Benfica's coach stressed the goal of achieving “consistency” in collective terms.

Benfica are even stronger since winning the 8th League Cup last Saturday [January 11], but with a very short window of preparation for the Portuguese Cup, in this case. Benfica will present itself tomorrow [Tuesday, January 14] and what do you expect Farense to find?

We always want the best Benfica. And what we talked about for a long, long time in our first few months on the job was unity. And that unity has come to us, it has given us the opportunity to be strong, to play well, to unite within ourselves and also to unite with the fans. And what we want right now - and we have to use and hold on to that word - is consistency. It's in search of this consistency that we have to keep working. We have to realize that we can't lose the unity we have - both within the team and with our fans - but we have to keep working to be more and more consistent. And that consistency has to come from all of us, from the players, realizing that they have to be at their best at all times, and also from us, as a coaching staff, to achieve that consistency, knowing that we have to play every three days. What we want most is for the routines to be maintained, for the eleven to stabilize, but at the same time, we know that we can't wear players out, that we have to give each player his moment, that we have to be careful not to wear players out and possibly injure them. So we have to stick to this word a lot, consistency has to be the watchword. About Farense, it's a very difficult game, because we had a very difficult game in the Championship. Tozé [Marreco] has done a fantastic job in getting Farense back on track. Unless I'm mistaken, in the last few games under him, Farense have five wins, five draws and three defeats, curiously with us, Braga and another opponent. They're a very competent team, and they'll certainly want to play the game that allows them to go on, but after winning the League Cup, we also want to be in the final, and tomorrow [Tuesday] we have to play a very good game and advance in the competition, which is what we want.

How do you prepare for a game with only one day's work, bearing in mind that yesterday [Sunday] was a day off and the game is tomorrow [Tuesday]? And you've already touched on this a little, the need to change the team. In what way do you intend to tinker, looking at this short space of time?

Look, we started preparing for the game with the day off, because the team is coming off consecutive games, and we have to know how to recover the players, both physically and emotionally. It's not easy. Players, travel, concentration, meetings, preparation, concentration for matches... We arrived in Lisbon around 3 am, I got home around 4 am. Between training that afternoon and the next morning, we realized that it was better for the players to recover well, sleep, mentally spend the day with their families, and today [Monday] be here ready to play Farense, curiously a team we'd already played. That's how we planned it, and we're sticking to the same plan, in exactly the same way as we prepared for the League Cup final after Braga. 

Benfica published footage of you telling the dressing room that you were going to win the League Cup. Can you say, with the same confidence, that you're going to be national champions this season?

I don't have a crystal ball yet, I don't guess things... It's not a question of guessing, or trying to be right. I understand the group I have very well. And I think it's excellent work - and recognize the work led by Ricardo Lemos, fantastic work - because that video shows many things beyond that, and shows many things that people think don't exist. For example, the unity of the group, the captain's commitment to the team, and other things, but I'll leave them up to you to observe and understand, beyond what I've just said, what the video shows. But the video doesn't show a coach who guesses; it shows a coach who is convinced of his work and the players he has at his disposal. And I'm still very convinced that we have a very good squad, and if we find the consistency that I want, and that I mentioned in the first question, we can reach the end, especially the last two or three games, and be in a position to compete for and win the title that we so desperately want.  What I want most today is, on the day after the last league match, to pass through the corridor next to the changing room, where we have replicas of all the cups, and for number 38 to be changed to number 39, as has already been done with the League Cup. When I walked past this morning, the number 8 was already there. That's what I want, that's what the players want, that's what everyone wants, that's what the fans want, and we're going to work towards that.

Objectively, how do you feel the team is doing, and where does it need to improve?

I've been saying that there are things we have to keep improving, and one of them is control. I think we did that very well in the two League Cup games, controlling the ball better. We played two very competent games in that sense, but we have to continue on that path. We have to have greater control of the game, realize that we can't always play at the same speed, realize that sometimes dropping a gear, keeping the ball, not entering pressure zones so quickly, can give us greater control of the game.

You've just said that you have a very good squad, and you feel that the team has all the conditions to go all the way and compete for the title. The big challenge then is for the board not to let any players leave in order to continue to be able to compete for the championship title?

No, the challenge is for everyone, because... You asked in a very intelligent way, I know where you want to go: market. Let's go to the market. We, Benfica, always have to be attentive to the market and, at any moment, a business opportunity and a player that might interest us... is welcome to help. And right now, if any players come in, it has to be to help this team to be better, to be more competent. And you know that as well as I do, I could be here giving you the same answer: nowadays, too, a business opportunity, if it comes up, as I said two or three weeks ago... you know they have to come with a full wallet, because we have a lot of youngsters who might leave. If it's good for the player, if it's good for the club, it's a business opportunity.