“I’m a bit shaken. We have a possible serious injury to Vasquinho.”

Vasco Botelho da Costa, Moreirense’s coach, in a Flash Interview with V+ after the 4-0 defeat against Benfica in the 14th round of the National Championship:

Vasco Sousa’s injury

“I’m a bit shaken up here, because I think we have a possible serious injury to Vasquinho [Vasco Sousa]. And it’s sad. We’ll see.”

Benfica were smart and waited for mistakes.

“Regarding the game, it’s complicated for me to come here and say that we played a very competent game from a defensive point of view and conceded four goals. But the truth is that the four goals we conceded happened during our attacking phase. We conceded one goal from a set piece and three balls that we built up poorly, losing them to Benfica. Benfica took advantage and, therefore, the victory was more than fair for a team that, as I said in the preview, came to play the game they needed to play and did so in a very competent and intelligent way, knowing how to wait for the moment when they could force our mistakes, mistakes that we don’t normally make, but that we ended up making and that took us out of the game. Because, if we look at the game itself, I’ll excuse it, and Benfica, apart from the goal, didn’t have a single shot in the first half.” “If we have any success in attacking, we need to be more incisive and, perhaps thinking about the other similar games we played against the best teams in this championship, we started with a game in Alvalade where we attacked, but didn’t create. Here, against FC Porto, we attacked more, but still didn’t create much. We arrived in Braga, played a great game, attacked a lot and created quite a bit. Today, I think we again failed to create as much when we attacked, but the game is clearly marked by the mistakes we made in the build-up, mistakes that are not common, that are part of situations we work on, where we have many options to make decisions and where today, most of the time, we didn’t decide well. Because, perhaps, I would prefer to decide well and execute poorly, I would feel more at ease. When we don’t decide well, we have to reflect on it, grow and learn. Therefore, regarding the result, nothing to say. Congratulations to Benfica, and we have to continue working.”

Positive points

“Yes, I have to find it. If I always say that I don’t like to look at the result to guide our daily work, we also have to have the ability, however hard it is and however punishing it is to lose 4-0, to look at the game as a whole. And the truth is that there are many things we did well in the game. We took the risk of pressing Benfica all over the field and I think we were quite successful. And perhaps we also have to look at that success, which I think Benfica allowed, because they didn’t take many risks in their build-up play. They knew how to handle being under pressure all over the field, they didn’t take big risks and they knew how to wait for the moment when they could decide the game. We, perhaps, took more risks, as usual. What we saw today, in relation to our attacking process, is what we do weekly and which has already given us 20 points in the league table. Therefore, we believe that this is the way forward.” “Now, we weren’t competent, and so, as in all situations, we have to look at them, grow, correct them, and next week give a great response.”