Benfica coach Roger Schmidt assured on Tuesday that attacker Rafa will not return to the Portuguese national team to participate in the Qatar World Cup, despite it being a hot topic in recent days.
According to the coach of the incarnates, the player “didn’t make the decision” to “concentrate on Benfica and not play for the national team without thinking about it” and the attacker’s choice is “final”, despite that he is “in top form”. and therefore everyone is discussing his option again”.
“He’s not going to the World Cup and the national team. But anyway, Portugal is a great team, they can have a great World Cup, but certainly without Rafa,” Roger Schmidt assured at a press conference. in Seixal.
However, the coach, who will find out this week which players from his team will or will not be chosen to represent their national teams, assumed he wants all of his footballers to be called up and “become world champions at best” ” .
The German coach stressed that “it is a great honor for all players to represent the national team, especially when there is a World Cup”, but he is not afraid to let “disillusioned” elements work with him during the competition if they do. do not. called to represent their country.
“The players who go to the World Cup will of course be very happy, they will do their best and those who stay here will stay. We will see this week what happens, which players are called up. Of course we can have some conversations, but My feeling is that everyone sees the situation very realistically,” said Schmidt.
Portuguese football coach Fernando Santos will announce the 26 players who have been chosen for the final phase of the 2022 World Cup on Thursday.
Benfica’s attacker Rafa was clearly in the red, prompting Fernando Santos himself to say recently that if the player wanted to “talk”, the coach would ask him for “time and place”.
Schmidt admits a very good start to the season, but remembers he hasn’t won anything yet
Roger Schmidt admitted that Benfica’s start to the season was “very good”, but warned that he still hasn’t won anything despite the good performances that have excited Benfica fans.
The German coach showed his pleasure in “making the fans happy” and assumed that this is “the biggest motivation” of the working group, but emphasized that to be an “idol”, as he was asked, he “something had to overcome” “.
“We are still at the beginning of the season. Obviously we are in a good series, the start at Benfica was very good for all of us, but at the moment I am not thinking about that.” We still haven’t won anything,” the Reds coach warned.
In first place in the championship, qualified for the fourth round of the Portuguese Cup, to be played on Wednesday, against Estoril, and qualified for the round of 16 of the Champions League, Schmidt heard on Monday that he had lost Club Brugge in that match, but refused to “talk about the opponent”.
“In a knockout stage of the Champions League, all the teams playing in this round are very good, they deserve to be there and we are still a long way off. At the moment we are focused, tomorrow on the Portuguese Cup, then on the League, then the League Cup, and then, in February, we’ll talk about the Champions League opponent,” the German coach refuted.
The focus is therefore on the Portuguese cup match against Estoril, which Benfica defeated 5-1 on Sunday in a match for the I Liga.
According to the Reds coach, it will be “a very different game”, where “only the two teams are the same”, but which “starts over from zero and comes from a different league”.
“We know Estoril is a good team, they also created chances against us, but in the end we deserve to win, and tomorrow we have to show the same focus and concentration to have every chance to win the game.” , he pointed out.
Benfica will visit Estoril Praia on Wednesday, for the fourth round of the Portuguese Football Cup, which starts at 20:45, at Campo António Coimbra da Mota, in Estoril, and will be whistled by Fábio Veríssimo (AF Leiria).
To reach the fourth round, Roger Schmidt’s team, from Liga 3, left Caldas, after winning 5-3 in the penalty shoot-out, in a match played in Caldas da Rainha, which ended in a 1-1 draw at the end of 90 minutes and overtime.
Estoril Praia, led by Roger Schmidt’s predecessor in the Reds, Nélson Veríssimo, defeated Amora with a 3-2 win away from home.
Source: DN
