During the press conference, Rúben Amorim was asked if after the game he had had that glass of wine with Dortmund coach Marco Rose, who had revealed in the preview that he would make this invitation.
“We exchanged bottles of wine, but we didn’t drink. It’s normal, it wasn’t just a game, it was a decision, there was no atmosphere. If it were the other way around, I wouldn’t have the patience to do it either», he said.
About the great moment he is going through at Sporting, the coach of the lions showed that his feet were firmly on the ground, despite his success. «In football, everything changes very quickly, it’s game by game, it’s the moment. I remember Paulo Bento also having managed to qualify Sporting for the round of 16, having launched kids and then being challenged. I remember Paulo Bento forever and don’t count on me to go there…»
Curious was the response about the draw for the Champions Round of 16. «Come the devil and choose. They will all be strong teams, they are the best 16, so… Of course there are teams I hated to be beaten, and I won’t say which ones, because I know my players would suffer and I don’t like to see them suffer. You have to be lucky in the draw and when I say luck it has to do with teams that fit better in our way of playing.”
Someone later reminded him that the only time they were in the round of 16 Sporting was thrashed by Bayern. “Maybe Bayern is praying and working,” he joked, also causing general laughter in the room.
At the individual level, the leonine coach said that Nazinho, who made his first-team debut yesterday, “is growing visibly”, that Pedro Gonçalves “has a great future ahead if he continues to work” and that it is good that Gonçalo Inácio be little talked about. “Let it be that good, he’s a humble boy who still has to grow up with us to think of something else.”
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