"We played a great match"

POST-MATCH

Benfica's emphatic win over AVS (6-0), this Sunday afternoon, April 27, was considered “very important” by Bruno Lage, in his analysis of the match of matchday 31 of the Liga Betclic, at Estádio da Luz.

In a flash interview with BTV, the Reds coach was pleased with the display. “We played well, we played a great match; a very strong start from us with the dynamics we wanted. I think we prepared very well for the game,” he said.

“GOOD DYNAMICS” HIGHLIGHTED

"First, I'd like to say that it was a good display, a strong start from us, with good dynamics, goals, goals from set pieces, but the most important thing was that we won the game, and we won fairly. And what remains is the 3 points. I reiterate what I said yesterday [Saturday] at the conference, and I'm going to repeat the same words, because it's not always possible to score goals after 40 seconds, it's not always possible to be winning 3-0 after 15 minutes, and what we have to do, especially me as a leader, is to protect my players, to bring the public to them, to continue supporting them, and for them to remain calm, not anxious, so that they can play like this. I was very surprised to see the front page of Record, and I can see that the same journalist is here, because today the front page about the scoreline comes out, and I'm already anticipating the matter, I didn't ask for a scoreline, I'm asking my players to put in a good display, to be solid, to be consistent, to respect their opponents, because I wouldn't be being fair by saying one thing in the conferences and saying something else to my players. It wouldn't have been fair to me half a dozen weeks ago to be standing here next to Tozé Marreco about the situation at Farense, and be asking for anything today. What I ask of my players is commitment, attitude, the courage to play the game we believe in, and then things happen naturally."

STAY FOCUSED AND DETERMINED

"[Goals as an important cushion in the League's outcome] We don't think about it, because to talk about it is to create anxiety in the players. So what we have to do is continue in our own way, focused and determined to play the game we believe in. Things may or may not happen naturally. That's why I'm telling you, we'll never know, looking at the last four games we've played, which games are going to give us the most problems, which games we can create the fewest chances. So what we have to do is stick to what we believe in. And what I believe, and I've been saying this almost from the start, looking at the schedule, is that the last two games are going to be very important."

ADDED TIME

"[Álvaro Carreras' yellow card?] Look, about the yellow cards, save your question, when the time is right, when I think it's right, I'll be happy to answer it. [Unhappy with the added time given?] Regarding the compensation minutes, remembering, for example, the last game we played here at home against Arouca, in which the compensation time, I think, was 6 or 7 minutes, we thought it was exaggerated; I think that, given what happened, 2 minutes is short."

THE PLAN TO OVERCOME AVS

"[What's the point of putting Amdouni instead of Schjelderup and Dahl instead of Barreiro?] Look, I'm going to repeat a little of what I've already said, which is that Samuel [Dahl] can play a little more wide, even though, curiously, we started the game with two left-backs, but they're two left-backs with different profiles. So... bringing Álvaro [Carreras] into the build-up phase, projecting Samuel [Dahl] down the left flank, and with a strong dynamic from Aktur [Aktürkoğlu] making his diagonal movements between the defenders. We had to have that, we knew how AVS organized themselves defensively, how to create, provoke some space, both between the lines and in depth. So, on the left, we tried to be dynamic; on the right, dynamic with Zeki [Amdouni], Zeki plays very well between the lines, receives well, rotates well, goes looking for combinations, having Tomás Araújo projected down the right flank, in short, always having people well positioned, both inside and out, so that we can then attack the opponent's defensive line."

CORNER KICK STRATEGY

"[Are you happy with the way you've been working on corner kicks?] Yes, it's something we've been working on and, with more training time, we've done a lot of work. So, look, full credit to my coaching staff for that work. Curiously, it was the game in which we brought the most corners prepared, we had the first, the second and the third. When we were giving the information to the players, I was even trying to see if they had the ability to take the first, second and then eventually a third. They managed to do it, we managed to exploit this, even though - you know, because we conceded the goal from a set piece in the first leg - AVS also dominate the set piece game very well, and we had to provoke them. And to provoke them was to get them out of their starting position and then attack the spaces that we thought were best."