The Mafra coach wants his team to enjoy the match with FC Porto, in the Portuguese Football Cup, admits that it will be special to face the dragons and promises to fight “until the last drop of sweat”.
“It will be a special match, without a doubt. FC Porto is the house that raised me. Sousa’s name will always be linked to the history of FC Porto. It will be special, but it is a match in which I will not give up my convictions. and I will defend Mafra until the last drop of sweat”, guaranteed the Mafra coach, who as a player wore the blue and white shirt.
Regarding Mafra’s path in the competition, after the locals reached the semifinals last season, Ricardo Sousa admitted that he would prefer not to face a team of the stature of FC Porto, but left the guarantee that the II Liga team will fight to get ahead in the Portuguese Cup.
“Last year we lived a beautiful dream, we fell to Tondela. This year, we started the competition with the same dream and the same ambition, to at least reach last year’s stage. Unfortunately, FC Porto fell to us at this stage.” A difficult rival, but not impossible. We know that they are favourites, but we are not going to resign ourselves to that. We have our weapons, our fans and we are going to fight in an environment that we will surely never live in Mafra”, predicted the 43-year-old coach.
Regarding the match with the national champions, Ricardo Sousa said that he expects FC Porto to be at its best and believes that Sérgio Conceição will not make it easy because the rival is from a lower league.
“Sérgio is not coming to Mafra to make it easy for them and we are going to fight with what we have. FC Porto has few negative points and I expect an FC Porto in the image of Sérgio: reactive, very aggressive and with a lot of individual quality in the last third”, said the Mafrense coach.
As for Mafra, Ricardo Sousa said that the team will have a different approach than it usually does against rivals from the II League.
“We will have to lower lines, defend compactly, try to pass the time, explore the nervousness of FC Porto that may appear and take advantage of some gaps that they also have”, he revealed.
Finishing the match preview, Ricardo Sousa admitted that the team practiced penalties and said that “it was a good sign that Mafra came to that discussion.”
The match of the fourth day of the Portuguese Cup between Mafra and FC Porto, winner of the trophy last season, is scheduled for Tuesday, at the Estádio Municipal de Mafra, starting at 8:45 p.m., and it is already full, with 2400 fans in benches
Source: TSF
