The Benfica coach warned on Friday that the team must show quality all season long to win titles, but he is guaranteed to focus only on this Saturday’s visit to Vitória de Guimarães for the 8th round of the I Liga.
In a press conference prior to the Minho’s meeting, Roger Schmidt admitted that it is “true” that the team has “big games in the coming weeks”, but recalled that he also had “a lot of pressure at the start of the game”. season” and that he has to confirm the right moment “week after week”.
“If we want to achieve something special, we have to show it all season long. It is true that there are big games in the coming weeks, but at the moment we are completely focused on Vitória and it makes little sense to look ahead, to the matches of the Liga dos Champions, or to other matches,” the German coach warned in Seixal.
In this sense, Schmidt recalled that it is necessary to “restart the engines” after the interruption of the championship for the matches of the selections, but admitted that “it was not bad” for the players to “rest a little and to calm down” after the high “load” of games “in the last weeks or months since the start of the season”.
“It’s always a challenge for players to get right back in, but either way, we want to keep playing like we did before the national team break. We’re at a good time, the players are happy to be back at Benfica, there is a lot of positive energy, we will try to play well and of course we want to win,” said the German.
And if they face Vitória de Guimarães, the “incarnations” will already know the result of the match between second and third place in the I Liga, Sporting de Braga and FC Porto, who face each other today in Estádio do Dragão, but Schmidt assured that he is interested in the outcome of the encounter between the two closest pursuers.
“What we have to do is not look at the other teams. We look at ourselves, focused on our game. We are in a good situation in the League, because we have worked a lot in recent months and it depends on us to get there tomorrow.” to show [sábado] same mind, same attitude. We need to play a great game tactically and that’s what we’re focused on, not other games.”
Benfica will visit Vitória de Guimarães on Saturday, in a meeting of the eighth round of the I Football League starting at 8.30 pm, in Estádio Dom Afonso Henriques, in the ‘cradle city’ and arbitration by Rui Costa (AF Porto).
The team led by Roger Schmidt wants to add its eighth consecutive championship win to increase its advantage over at least one of its closest pursuers, Sporting de Braga and FC Porto, who face each other today and take two and five points behind the ‘incarnates’ respectively in the rankings.
Vitória de Guimarães, in turn, has won just one of their last five games and remains in ninth place in the I Liga, with 10 points, the same as Sporting, 11 points behind Benfica.
Source: DN
