Coach Roger Schmidt admitted on Tuesday that Benfica really wants to face Bruges, in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, but wants the reds to play the intense football of recent months.
“We are going to try to play as we always try to play, with intense, dynamic football, against a team with a lot of quality, with very fast and dynamic players up front. I expect two teams looking for the goal, ”he began. according to the German coach, at the press conference prior to the game against the Belgians on Wednesday.
Schmidt recalled that the isolated leader of the I Liga “worked a lot to get to this point”, so he wants to continue with his good performance in the Champions League, with the ‘quarters’ in sight.
“We are very looking forward to this match, we worked hard to get to this stage. We managed to qualify in a very difficult group and we want to be at the highest level”, he expressed.
The Belgian emblem, now led by the Englishman Scott Parker, is not going through a good moment in the domestic league, however, for Schmidt, the rival will be highly motivated on the pitch, given the campaign he carried out in the group stage .
“I am sure that everyone at Brugge is very motivated. They had a very difficult group, in which they beat FC Porto, Atlético de Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, teams of great quality. They deserve to be here and the individual quality shows”, he justified.
For his part, the midfielder João Mário also addressed the media, to, like the coach, remember the qualities of the rival, who can only be brought down by “a great Benfica”.
“You can expect a confident team that will do everything possible to try to win the game, with our ideas and offensive football. The rival had a good group stage. Now they have a different coach, with a different game idea, but the players They are very talented individually. Only a great Benfica can win here”, he warned.
Regarding the individual performance in the best season of his career, in which he already has nine assists and 16 goals, the midfielder defended that the numbers are due to collective work.
“I am happy with this good individual moment, which is the result of collective work. I have adapted well to the system, I play more advanced on the field and I appear more in the finishing areas. Fortunately I have been showing coldness at the end and I have been able to help the team, which is the most important thing,” he explained.
The match between Club Brugge and Benfica, the first between the two clubs, in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, will be played on Wednesday, at the stadium of the three-time Belgian champion, starting at 8:00 p.m.: 00 and refereed by the Italian Davide Pasta.
The second leg of the tie is scheduled for March 7, at the Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon.
Source: TSF
