"At this moment, the 3 points are the most important thing"

POST-MATCH

The three points earned against Gil Vicente, in the game that Benfica won 2-1 on Friday night, September 26, at Estádio da Luz, left José Mourinho convinced that the main objective had been achieved.

SPIRIT, SACRIFICE, AND RESILIENCE

"[In the presentation, you said, “We have to bite hard.” Are you satisfied with the team's performance?] But to bite hard, you need to be in good physical condition and fresh, which is something we don't have right now. The team is tired, many players are tired. Playing with two days' rest between games is OK once; when it happens twice in a row, it starts to get difficult, and when it happens three times, it becomes practically impossible. I think—especially because I had this experience when I coached União de Leiria—that good teams that don't play in Europe, that don't have a lot of games, and have a week to prepare, when there is quality in the players, which is the case with Gil, when there is quality in the coach, which is the case with Gil, can play eye to eye with the big teams when they are in difficulty. And we are in trouble. Fortunately, we are now entering a 3-day cycle instead of 2, and we can already shake off some of the fatigue. Without pushing too hard, they worked within their limits, were resilient, and pushed themselves to their limits. I would say in the Benfica spirit. The spirit, the sacrifice, the resilience, fighting for a result in the Benfica spirit. Then, we didn't play in the Benfica spirit, we didn't think in the Benfica spirit, we lacked individual quality, and, obviously, we also lacked quality as a team. But at that moment, the most important thing was the three points, and we achieved that, I repeat, against a good team. A very good team."

BALANCE AND BE HUMBLE

"[Does César Peixoto's work, highlighted by the performance at Estádio da Luz, match what you knew of him as a player?] No, it doesn't match because he was 21 years old as a player, with all the flaws of 21-year-old players, with rare exceptions. He himself acknowledges this. We were talking a bit before the game, and he himself acknowledges that it's a completely different period in his life, in his career as a player. The curious thing about César [Peixoto] is that I was at his cruciate ligament operation, the doctor let me in, and it helped me a lot in the future, because I was one of those coaches who always put enormous pressure on players to recover quickly, and when I was at a cruciate ligament operation, and when I saw a completely open knee and realized the extent of it, I started to be much more balanced in the pressure I put on players to recover. I asked him if he liked it, and he said he liked it a lot, even more than when he played, and that's what a coach needs to move forward. The team didn't surprise me because I analyzed it. I really liked what I saw from the start of the Championship. The players are good, the coach is good, they are well organized, they are not afraid of complicated situations involving relegation, they look up, they have the quality to look up, and it's like I said: fresh players against dead players makes a significant difference. Every time they recovered the ball, you could clearly see that they had a different pace. I would say that [Richard] Ríos was very important for us in midfield transitions, because he was the one who managed to balance the transitions a little bit. Then our attacking players, especially the two wingers, didn't have, as I said—one, more for character reasons than anything else; the other, truly for physical reasons—they didn't have 90 minutes, and then we entered that phase of the game where it was important to balance, it was important to be humble in the sense of ‘the points are important, let's not concede goals,’ and indeed in the last 10/15 minutes we didn't have any situations of great difficulty and we managed the game until the end."

LUKEBAKIO'S PLAYING TIME

"[Reasons why Lukebakio played more than 45 minutes] 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, and no great solutions on the bench for the same position. Ivanovic on the right can't play in that position. I put him on to try to add a little intensity, a little speed, but then he moves into the middle and loses the ball a lot under pressure. I tried to go with Luke [Lukebakio] as much as possible. I thought more about the first half than the second half. I thought: 3-1, and the game is different. But then, with the score at 2-1, obviously you want to hold on, but at the same time you want to have someone on the field who can attack, who can be dangerous, so I left him on a little longer. But now there are three days to recover, and that will be important for him."

INTENSITY WITH 2 WINGERS

"[Reason for Lukebakio to start] You're going to laugh, but the goal was to start well. Gil [Vicente] started well. But the goal was to start well, the goal was to have people on the field who could start the game strong, try to start well. We didn't start well, but we had players on the field in the first half who managed to respond well. The penalty is an important move, and I think that in this team, he's the only one who can make that kind of deep move, and his control afterward is great. I wanted him to play from the start, precisely to try to get off to a good start. We don't have an abundance of pure wingers. I wanted to start with the two of them to try, as I said, to give a little more intensity, a little more width. Gil Vicente is a team that puts a lot of people up front and defends with two lines of four; when they go on the counterattack, it leaves the team a little unprepared for the transition. I thought we could score more goals from recovered balls "

PRAGMATISM AT SPECIFIC MOMENTS

"[Be pragmatic?] For me, pragmatism is also control. It's more control, it's taking the game where we want to take it. And we weren't the ones who took the game where we wanted to take it. It was Gil Vicente who forced us, in those last 10/15 minutes, to play in a way we didn't want to. But then they came a little bit to meet our lack of energy, they came a little bit to meet our lack of speed in transitions. Then I brought Tomás [Araújo] in at full-back, because he obviously closes down the space inside better, the space where they scored the disallowed goal. And I was afraid that something might happen there in the final stages too. Then, yes, it was a pragmatic move, but I think pragmatism is important at certain moments in the game, but not as a philosophy. Just being pragmatic isn't enough, especially at a club like this, it's not enough. Now there are moments, there are moments, and at that moment it was important for us." 

PERFORMANCE

"[What does it mean for Trubin to be Benfica's best player?] I didn't see the game. I didn't see the game. I was distracted and didn't see the game. We saw a different game. He makes a fantastic double save in the first minute, concedes a goal from a free kick 16 meters out, a foul that should have been called against Gil Vicente, so we can take that situation out of context. He had two shots that hit the post, but they weren't even the kind of shots that are almost goals, they were shots that grazed the post, and then what? Crosses, long balls, coming out...? I didn't see anything special in Trubin's game, honestly."

EMOTIONS OF RETURNING TO STAMFORD BRIDGE

"I'm going to see my son, because he's there. Right now, my wife and daughter are in Portugal, my son is in London, so the best thing there is to be able to see him and, if possible, make up for the points we lost against Qarabag. But I know that Chelsea is a top team, with fantastic players, a good coach, great status, they are world champions. They also lost their first game, so they need points too. If the fans are nice to me, great; if not, that's life, no problem. But I'm happy to be back."

CHANGES AT CHELSEA

"[Reaction to Cole Palmer's absence from the Champions League] I'm happy about that, he's a phenomenal player. [Changes at Chelsea] You know, Abramovich's Chelsea, my Chelsea, the Chelsea we built and which lasted for many years, was a winning club, it won everything, with me and then with Ancelotti, Conte, Tuchel... Chelsea was a winning machine, it always won, every season. Big changes, crazy investment, but in a couple of years, it seemed like they lost their way. Lots of players, lots of millions... the team without a clear philosophy... So, for a few years, it was... difficult. For those who love the club, it was difficult. Enzo Maresca arrived, step by step, the puzzle was put together. You know, the Conference League is a fantastic competition for a team like this to win easily and get their first trophy. And it gives the club the philosophy and culture of winning, no matter what, winning. In my day, I think we won three or four League Cups, for example. If you can't win the Premier League, you win something, so you win the Conference League, you win something. So they won the Conference League. And then they go to the United States and come back with the shield, the big shield, on their chest. Now, yes, I think they have a good team. In a way, if Cole Palmer can't play, it's not a problem for them. If Sudakov doesn't play or if Pavlidis doesn't play, I'm in big trouble. But for Chelsea, it's no problem."