"Play offensive football and win"

PREVIEW

On the eve of Benfica-Qarabag match, to be played on Tuesday, September 16, from Matchday 1 of the Champions League, Pavlidis believes the team is ready to shine in its debut in the competition – scheduled for 8:00 pm at Estádio da Luz – with the desired 3 points.

Benfica is the favorite against Qarabag. What is the message for the game?  

We want to start the Champions League well, and, of course, we will try to play offensive football and win the game, as always. That is the most important thing for us. To get the 3 points and continue doing well in the games.

Bruno Lage said that Pavlidis and Ivanovic have played together longer than they have trained together. Do you think it will take a long time for this connection to work?

No. The coach knows very well – I think everyone knows – that we didn't have the pre-season, nor the time we needed. So far, we've played nine official games, and we've also had a ten-day break for international games. It's normal that we don't have the working time we wanted, but of course we'll train more and play more games. The team... Ivanovic and I can play together equally well to support the team and help it play better football.

After finishing last season well, Benfica fans expected you to continue scoring lots of goals at the start of this season. I ask you, what difficulties are you experiencing? What are you missing to be at your best?

I don't think I'm not playing well or anything like that. I think we're playing well as a team. Of course, the last game wasn't perfect, but if you look at how we played in the Super Cup, how we played in the Champions League qualifiers, I disagree with your opinion. Of course, the fans always want the best for the team. I don't think the fans are just waiting for me to score goals. But of course, I want to help the team, I want to score goals, and they will come. It's like I said: we haven't had many days to recover, and we've been playing every three days. I think you understand that it's very difficult for us to work on certain aspects, especially when there are so many new players in the team. We need time, that's normal, but I don't agree [with what you say] about what the fans expect from me.

What was the impact of the last game against Santa Clara, not only in terms of the result – the draw – but especially in terms of how it ended?

We didn't play well. We want to be more aggressive in attack. We didn't play that well, of course everyone can see that, but it's one bad game in the first nine. We only drew, and I see people talking as if we weren't good players, or as if we didn't play good football. It was a bad game, and tomorrow [Tuesday] we'll see again how the team can play good football and show the quality of the players.

Last season, Pavlidis was one of Benfica's best players. With the signing and use of Ivanovic, the coach gave him the role of staying closer to the box, leaving his teammate with the task of being a second striker. Do you feel comfortable with this dynamic?

I think both ways are very good, and I can play either way, with just one striker or with two. We talked to Ivanovic about how we want to attack, the coach explained to us how he wants us to attack and the positions we have to take. Everyone is thinking about the last game. As I said, it wasn't a good game, but if you look at other games we played with Ivanovic, like in Nice, we played well, and Ivanovic scored. Against Tondela, Ivanovic also scored, we created a lot of chances, and I didn't score... As the coach already mentioned, we didn't have time to train, we played a lot of games, and we didn't have a pre-season. People have to understand that football isn't always that simple. Sometimes it is simple, but other times it isn't. Day by day, we will improve and understand each other better.