The Benfica coach defended this Friday that replacing the striker Di María with the defender Morato, in the I Liga football match against Boavista, was “the right decision”, despite the fact that the ‘incarnated’ ended up defeated by 3- 2.
In a press conference prior to the second round, against Estrela da Amadora, Roger Schmidt ‘returned’ to the Estádio do Bessa and admitted that “Ángel [Di María] He was not happy” with the substitution at the beginning of the second half, but recalled that he had never seen a player satisfied “to be substituted at those moments” and returned to defend his decision.
“We were winning 1-0, controlling the game, they were going to bet on set pieces and long balls. So, having another central defender in the field, who is very good in the air, was a good decision, or I am convinced of that”, insisted the German coach, at the Benfica Campus, in Seixal.
Schmidt, for his part, did not exempt the goalkeeper Vlachodimos from blame for the three goals conceded, assuming that “it was not his best day”, but recalled that Boavista “had three chances to score and scored them all”, for which he defended that the responsibility belonged to the whole team.
“It wasn’t just him [Vlachodimos]. In general, our defensive action in these three situations could have been better. Goals were conceded. It was a matter for the whole team, but, obviously, the goalkeeper is always the last man who can prevent goals and he could have done better”, commented the German.
Even so, when asked if it would be the right time to launch goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin, as well as striker Arthur Cabral, reinforcements who joined the team last week, the coach was evasive.
“I’m always thinking about finding the right moment to use them, that it’s not too early or too late. The best integration is to play, but on the other hand, I also want them to have a perfect start at Benfica.” “, he concluded.
Surely David Jurásek will miss the game with an ankle ligament injury and will be out for “three or four weeks”, a period that Schmidt considered “good news”.
“We hope he returns after the national team break, ready to play again. It is the first good news. After the game we thought it would be worse, because it was a very hard foul, like many others in that game. We were lucky to only have one injury,” said the coach.
Benfica receives Estrela da Amadora on Saturday, in a match of the second day of the 1st Football League, scheduled for 8:30 p.m., at Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon, with the refereeing of Gustavo Correia, from the Association Porto Soccer.
The team led by Roger Schmidt will try to win their first championship, after being defeated by Boavista, 3-2, in the first round, a few days after winning the Super Cup against FC Porto.
Source: TSF
