Benfica coach Roger Schmidt refused this Wednesday to prioritize any domestic competition over others, but admitted he wanted to qualify for the last four of the League Cup, an objective he failed to achieve last season.
When asked at a press conference in Seixal whether one of his goals in Portugal is to win all possible titles, the coach admitted that “it is almost impossible” to win “everything”, but assured that the team will always gives the best “in every situation”. matches”.
“My goal is to win tomorrow [quinta-feira]. And then we keep trying to do our best in all competitions. I have no preferences and when we participate in a competition, we do our best to reach the final or be the best team,” said the coach, looking ahead to the meeting with AVS.
For Schmidt, the situation is “very clear” in the team’s second match in Group B of the League Cup, against an opponent that despite playing in the II League has “a lot of quality and very experienced players and can still qualify “. for the semi-finals of the competition.
“We want to reach the last four in this competition. It is a new competition, a different competition. We have played a match before and the situation is very clear. We have the opportunity, with a good match and a win, to to qualify for the last four is our task and our goal,” said the ‘red’ coach.
And with the January transfer window just around the corner, Schmidt acknowledged that the club is “always evaluating the market” and that players may arrive and leave during that month, but assured that the team’s focus is solely on the next commitments.
“Right now the focus is entirely on tomorrow’s match [quinta-feira] and later with Famalicão. Everything else can happen after January 1,” he admitted.
Benfica will host AVS on Thursday in the third round of Group B of the Football League Cup, which starts at 8:15 p.m., at Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, and will be refereed by Carlos Macedo, of the Association of Braga Football.
The team led by Roger Schmidt guarantees qualification for the final four if they win or draw, while the Vila das Aves team needs to win by two goals to progress to the next stage of the competition.
The Reds top the group, with three points, the same as Arouca, who is already out of the next stage of the competition, while AVS are last, still without points.
Source: DN
