We only depend on ourselves to finish first, says Reuben Amorim.

Analysis of Farense: “Obviously it will be a very difficult game, a different game from Rio Ave, a completely different team, a very experienced coach, more than everyone here in the first team of Sporting, will be waiting for our transitions and all the details will count. Still balls, we can’t lose the ball, we have to have very long possessions. A little narrower field than ours, we did the training with narrower field and it makes a difference. We looked at all the details. The ability of Rui Costa, Bruno Duarte, Belloumi, who is a young man with a lot of talent. They are an experienced team, they have nothing to lose, they have already beaten Braga on their pitch, so I expect a difficult game, but we know well what to do. We played with them in pre-season, I think they will defend differently than they did against Braga, we trained all that, now it’s to see tomorrow if we can win the game or not. It goes through a lot of not losing the ball, having the ball, creating chances and not conceding goals, because we have 90 or 100 to score one.”

What result would you like in the classic? “What we want is to finish the journey in first place and we just depend on us. We spent a year chasing, always thinking about others, that others had to lose games to move up. In any stadium, in any game, if we win we will be first. We may or may not be accompanied. I don’t sign anything underneath (in relation to the classic). I sign underneath the victory of Sporting. If we win ours we are first placed and that’s what matters most, after a year where we were always behind and having that feeling of not just looking at our game, looking at the neighbour and that causes some distraction.”

Physical situation of the squad: “If you want to know about Viktor (Gyokeres), he is fit. St. Juste is recovering, Afonso Moreira and João Muniz are injured. Ousmane (Diomande) recovered, it was a scare, he didn’t know how to explain at the time (in the game with Rio Ave), I thought I didn’t want to risk it, he did the week normally.”

Fresneda adaptation: “It’s competing for a spot, the adaptation isn’t being long at all. If we look at the case of Ugarte, he walked six months in which he barely played. And suddenly, it appeared. It’s about the teammates, the dynamics and the time to train. We’ve had a lot of games and Fresneda plays on a defensive line that has a lot of concepts. He’s been learning very quickly, and he’s been coming in, because playing is also coming in and we need players coming in. It will be his time to be a starter. In his position, there is a player who already has many routines with me (Ricardo Esgaio). There’s also Geny Catamo, who plays in that position when it’s to attack more. The games are what have dictated the use of Fresneda, Ricardo Esgaio and Geny Catamo.”

Paulinho with Gyokeres: “We would have to do a more in-depth study and, even then, it would be difficult to be sure that this was the main reason. Not much has changed, the base of the team hasn’t changed. A striker has appeared who has different characteristics. I’m inclined to say that the arrival of Gyokeres helped Paulinho free himself more, I’m inclined to that. But we had to do a more comprehensive and thorough study to really understand what happened. And sometimes nothing happens, just the ball goes in on the first play, the second, and that creates a different dynamic. Everyone has improved with Gyokeres because he is a player with some characteristics that we didn’t have. The team has become more dangerous in attacking depth.”