Will Vítor Pereira be the great worker at the end of Jorge Jesus’ record-breaking series? This is the great expectation for this Saturday’s game. For the first time since that night when Kelvin donned the hero’s cape (unlikely), the two Portuguese coaches will face each other again.
The reality of the duel on Saudi soil is far from the intensity of the classics and the distance between Al Hilal (1st) and Al Shabab (10th) even takes weight away from the game, but Jesus cannot let himself be carried away by memories if he wants to turn around your Achilles heel.
The duels with Vítor Pereira are bad memories. There were five, all when they trained FC Porto and Benfica. The balance is even balanced, although with an advantage for Vítor Pereira. The former Dragons coach won two games, while Jesus only managed to beat Vítor Pereira’s FC Porto on one occasion – in the League Cup. In two seasons, for the Portuguese league, the former Benfica coach never managed to get the better of his rival, either in games between them or in the final scores.
If Vítor Pereira is a kind of thorn in Jorge Jesus’ side, it is also true that, almost 11 years later, the balance seems to tip in favor of the Al Hilal coach, as recognized by Rui Quinta, assistant at FC Porto to the date of the last game between the two coaches.
«When FC Porto and Benfica met, there was a great balance in terms of individual values. This time, things will not be so balanced, but there is always the coach’s ability to organize his team in a collective sense to face the superiority of the opposing squad. At this distance, Al Hilal has a greater dose of favoritism compared to Al Shabab », he assumes, in conversation with the More football.
Jorge Jesus at the end of the famous 2013 Classic (MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite the favoritism on paper, Jesus will have to know how to deal with Vítor Pereira’s strategy, which for more than a decade has been about giving players the right amount of freedom. Ivan Rakitic or Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco, for example, could be the trump cards up their sleeve.
«Jorge Jesus’ teams are always quality teams. Jesus always trains squads with great quality and at that time he was no exception. It was a team with great players and very well trained. We knew that Jesus’ teams had consistency and were well organized and prepared. We also had limitations in reversing the course of events, in terms of options. Vítor had the sensitivity and clarity to introduce Kelvin into the game», remembers Rui Quinta, recalling a moment that Jesus still must have stuck in his throat.
«Kelvin, at that moment, made a decision that came from the confidence he felt in the way we trained. We conveyed to the players this freedom of being able to decide based on what they felt at each moment. He surprised us all. It has to do with the way Vítor led the group. They could decide based on what they felt at the time of the decision,” he acknowledges.
Kelvin’s shot to make it 2-1, in added time, in the 2013 Clásico (MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP via Getty Images)
When they last faced each other, the two Portuguese coaches led teams with the same status and value, something very different from today. Al Hilal continues to seek to increase the world record for consecutive victories – which now stands at 29 – but, as at the time of the Classics, they will face a team with a combative spirit, which after five games Vítor Pereira will have already instilled .
«Al Shabab has a different dimension from Al Hilal. Jesus built a team in his image, then marked a growing path and began a winning cycle with a record of consecutive victories. Vítor arrived with the championship underway, he didn’t choose the players, he already gave the team a stamp, but they are two teams of different sizes. But I believe that, given the way Vítor organizes his teams, it will be a competitive game. But Jorge Jesus’ team has very good dynamics and a lot of confidence due to being in the lead and the results they have achieved. It will be a competitive game, but Jesus’ team has an advantage in terms of quality and dynamics over Vítor’s team », he assumes.
If the possibility of reaching 30 victories is more than enough motivation for Al Hilal, Al Shabab players, in addition to wanting to stop the leader, can try their luck and ask Vítor Pereira for a break, if they win. A perk that, in 2013, FC Porto players managed to obtain from the coach.
«Our team always found moments to win. We had drawn in Madeira, we were four points behind Benfica and Vítor told the players that for each victory he would allow two days off and said that, if we won all seven games, we would be national champions. And that was the outcome,” he recalls.
The careers of the two «world-class coaches» have followed different paths and that alone prevented the reunion from being delayed. Even so, Jesus and Vítor Pereira have several things in common, such as the fact that they both coached the Turks at Fenerbahçe and the Brazilians at Flamengo. From a technical point of view, Rui Quinta considers that the similarity between the two is the «ability to make the most of the resources they have».
And if Jesus probably still hasn’t forgiven Vítor Pereira’s decision to launch Kelvin at that moment in the 2013 Classic, the relationship between the two coaches does not reveal any kind of hurt feelings.
«They relate very well, they always talk from a very good perspective, not shying away from each other’s desire to win the game. Their relationship was built in a context of great respect for each other’s work», highlights Rui Quinta.
Will Vítor Pereira need another hero capable of Kelvin’s feat for the Portuguese coach to show that he is Jesus’ kryptonite? Or will Jesus be able to remove this stone from his shoe? The die is cast and the answer will emerge this Saturday, starting at 7pm, at Al Shabab’s home.
2024-03-29 23:52:02
#Eleven #years #Kelvin #Jorge #Jesus #encounters #kryptonite #MOREFOOTBALL
