Pepa said that Vitória de Guimarães will have to be very strong in the reception to Benfica, Saturday (18 hours) in the game of the 7th round, an opponent who, he says, is “much stronger” than last year.
What Benfica expects: «Tomorrow’s opponent needs no introduction, they are at their best moment, we have to be very strong to achieve victory. Above all, this Benfica team has nothing to do with last year. It is very strong in the reaction to the loss, in the defensive process, it concedes few chances to score, with dynamics that we identified, such as Rafa and João Mário mobile. We know what we’re going to find. We have to have the ball, have discretion, and attack Benfica a lot, the more they run back, the more difficulties they will have. Let’s see who can have more domain. See what we can do without the ball, what we can do afterwards with it and force Benfica to run.”
As Vitória presents itself: «Above all, we have to have personality, we won’t adapt to anyone. There may be changes, but we are not going to change our minds because of the opponent. It may seem repetitive, but we have given more to the game than the game to us, in terms of points and goals. I’ve talked about this many times. What’s behind us, we can’t move. We tend to look at the result, that’s the juice; but until we get the juice out it’s a process, and it’s been a good one, we feel good about what we’ve been doing. The juice will be better with time because the process is good. We have to brush the perfection by putting eye to eye.»
Vitória hasn’t beat Benfica at home since February 2012: «The numbers… that’s history, we can only change what will happen tomorrow, that doesn’t make us more or less strong. The story is written there tomorrow in the countryside. Regardless of what is behind us, we feel capable of winning the game and we want to make history.”
Benfica is the team for which Quaresma scored the most goals: «I expect from Ricardo what I expect from everyone, total confidence in everyone. I had hope that Nico [Janvier] I was going to score outside the area, I had to pay some chickens. Made two.”
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