Benfica drew against Casa Pia (1-1) on Saturday and the fans showed their displeasure by whistling the team and white handkerchiefs at the coach, who had assured the day before that his place was not in danger. When asked about this, Roger Schmidt said he understood the fans’ displeasure: “I can understand it and, to be honest, it is our mission at Benfica to deal with this pressure.”
“I think the fans were fantastic while we were on top of the game. They supported us and I believe they showed that they were satisfied with the team’s performance. When we conceded 1-1, of course they expected us to win the game, whatever happened. We couldn’t score the second goal and they were just as frustrated as we were. They want to be champions just like us, but if we don’t win these games, even if we control and dominate…”, replied the German coach, approaching the battle from the stands in a curious way.
According to the red coach, the team lacked efficiency. “Frustration. When you watch the game you realize that we have to win. We had a good approach, played good football, but it was not easy to create chances because they are good at playing with a very low defense. ” Yet we managed to find several solutions in the first half to create chances. What we forgot was to decide to score more than one goal, because only one goal keeps the opponent in the match. Football is like that: we made mistakes, we didn’t take the chances we had and it’s a draw. It is of course frustrating,” he told BTV.
And how can Benfica turn the scenario around? “We have to work. I think we are doing well. Scoring goals, being directly in the penalty area, finding the right player, showing quality and scoring more goals… that is something we have to show. Because if we have so much needing opportunities to decide is not good, because Football is like that: sometimes you get punished because you don’t take advantage of the opportunities you have. We have to work, improve individually and as a team. That’s what we have to do,” he added.
Source: DN
