"We played a great game"

POST-MATCH

Eye to eye: that's how José Mourinho saw Benfica's performance against Chelsea (1-0) on matchday 2 of the Champions League, held this Tuesday, September 30, at Stamford Bridge.

A GOOD DISPLAY

"I think my analysis is the same as everyone else's because I've done an interview for Portugal, Spain, France, England, and Italy, and all five journalists who interviewed me started by saying that Benfica played a great game. I agree. I told the players, because that's how I am, that a defeat is a defeat. And a defeat when you play badly, or a defeat when you play well and deserve more, is still a defeat. Playing well doesn't earn us any points. But there's losing and then there's losing. And losing the way we did can't be an attack on our confidence, an attack on our growth. On the contrary, it has to be a foundation for building. Chelsea is undoubtedly the best team of the four I played against at Benfica. With all due respect, they are better than Gil [Vicente], better than Rio Ave, better than AFS. And this is the best game Benfica has played. They play consistently, they play solidly, they play with great balance, both tactically and emotionally. They create opportunities, they get out of pressure situations very well, they control a team that is very difficult to play against, due to their individual quality and the tactical designs they put into their offensive organization. I think Benfica played a very successful game. Obviously, we are frustrated by the defeat. As I say, a defeat is a defeat. But I think it's an important foundation to build on, and the team did well."

ENOUGH CHANCES FOR A DIFFERENT OUTCOME

"Yes, without a doubt. We started well, we controlled the game, we had, I don't know if I can say great chances, but we definitely had chances, and the goal is probably the only small mistake we made defensively. I think [Richard] Ríos and Dedic both closed down the same area and left Garnacho open to put the ball in front of goal. Despite that, the team was very stable, very confident, and constantly pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing. In the last period, I tried playing with fresh players, I tried playing with a second striker, I tried playing with a new left winger, I saw Malo Gusto struggling. Maresca saw Malo Gusto struggling and switched to an even better player than Malo Gusto. This is the Chelsea squad, which allows him to do that. I've been here for 10 days, I've played 4 games in 10 days, it's play, recover, travel, and play, I haven't had much time to develop training. Today, I'm very happy. A few days ago, I would have been happy with the win, but today, the performance... I really liked it, I liked it a lot." 

THE ONLY THING MISSING WAS THE GOAL

"What can [Benfica] learn? They have to put the ball in the net. If you don't score, you don't win. We talked about it, and when we prepared for the game, we discussed it: to win here, you have to be very solid defensively, you have to be very balanced defensively, you can't let the game break down, because if it does, they are very fast, and they have more speed on the bench to bring on later. When they took Garnacho off, they put Gittens on, and so on, and all of that was important. Now, you have to score goals. We had our chances, I haven't seen them on the monitor yet, I don't know if they were big or huge, but at least we had chances. We had good control, we got out of the pressure zones well, we played well inside, and then, in the final part, I tried to give new energy, with Schjelderup on the left, Ivanovic on the right, who has great difficulty on the wings, but I had to put someone in Lukebakio's place, and I thought that a fresh player, even if it's not his natural habitat, could give something there. The players were fantastic. Having three midfielders on yellow cards in a game of transitions and speed is very difficult, very difficult to play there with three players on yellow cards. I took one off, I was left with only two, it had to be Barreiro who could risk a yellow card in transition. I think we did everything right, except win the game and score a goal. I don't want to say anything stupid, I haven't had time to watch it on TV yet, but I get the feeling that João Pedro should have been sent off earlier. I get the feeling that there was a ball from João Pedro to Otamendi, which normally a player with a yellow card wouldn't even risk doing. If he had received a second yellow card there, I wouldn't have been surprised at all, and surely, if they were already struggling 11 against 11, 11 against 10, they could have collapsed, as they did in the last game against Brighton. But I'm not sure what I'm saying."

CONSTANT CHALLENGE AND AMBITION

"[How strong is your desire to win, 20 years later?] It's bigger, it's bigger because when I arrived, nobody expected anything from me. I remember there were a lot of question marks, will I succeed, will I fail... My career has taken me to a position where it seems I have the magic to make things happen. I left Manchester United after winning things, I left Tottenham after taking the club to a final, I left Roma after two European finals, because with me, it's never enough. If I'm in this job, it's because I like to challenge myself every day. I have a fantastic family, but they know how I am, they encourage me to go out, they know I need to work. I'm desperate to win the next game, that's just my nature." 

LUKEBAKIO IS THE PRESENT

"Did Benfica miss Kerem Aktürkoğlu? No, Kerem is no longer here. Benfica did a good job in bringing in Lukebakio, who is a good player. He didn't have a preseason, he had a serious injury, it's only his second game, his second and a few more minutes, he's coming back. Today, he had a difficult game against a player who is very aggressive and very quick to defend, like Cucurella. He was a tough opponent, but Lukebakio is a good player, so forget about Aktürkoğlu."

MANY POSITIVE THINGS

"[Is what the players did today proof of character that could make you more confident about what lies ahead?] I think so, the difference between two and three days is crucial. Playing one or two games every two days isn't dramatic, but when you enter a cycle of three or four games in a row, with two days in between, then the situation is... – and it's not just me saying this, it's scientifically proven that you never fully recover, and you start playing while fatigued. When you start playing while fatigued, imagine how you end the game. And that's what's been happening to us. I think that today, this third day gave the players a certain freshness. The fantastic support from our fans here was very noticeable, very noticeable. Stamford Bridge, which has good acoustics, the blues weren't so noticeable. I think Benfica managed to create a dominant atmosphere from the outside in. The players felt comfortable playing. And then there's the way the game unfolded. I think it's essential to increase confidence levels. Even [Richard] Ríos, who unfortunately ended up conceding the goal, I'm starting to understand him a little better. He's a player who, when he drops back too far, doesn't have much quality in tight spaces. He's a player who needs space to play, he's a player who gets forward, he's a player who can also appear in the final third, he wins the ball back a lot. Even he, who has been a player who has been criticized a little because of the number on his back (not his jersey number, his transfer number), I think even he was positive; the three midfielders playing with yellow cards for so long, I think it's a demonstration of ability... They played well, they played well. I can't say I'm happy, because, well, it's the same old story, zero points, why would you be happy? But I can take a lot of positives from this."

EVERYTHING IS FINE WITH ANTÓNIO SILVA

"António Silva was injured, but then, even as he left the field, he walked out. But obviously in these situations, when dizziness sets in, even though he has now recovered, on the field, when there is dizziness, the man is more important than the game, and the signal was given immediately. And, on top of that, it didn't even create a dramatic situation for me, because it's one of the few positions where we had a fully fit player on the bench ready to play, namely Tomás [Araújo]. I don't think António will have any major problems recovering, nor do I think it can be called a concussion."

A GOOD SIGN THAT INDICATES WE CAN STEAL POINTS AWAY FROM HOME

"[There was a perception that Benfica was more comfortable in games that were theoretically more evenly matched, or even in games where they were not the favorites, than in games where they were the clear favorites. Do you agree?] Look, the other day I used an expression that I think was something like “we're not a team with a strong presence in the area,” we're not a team with a strong presence. Probably, when we play against very low teams that sit back, Benfica is a team that is more used to having the ball, circulating the ball, lots of passes behind, lots of lateral passes, it's a team that doesn't look for depth. Maybe that's part of it. But the fact that today we were very solid defensively, very balanced, without giving our opponents many chances to make transitions... ou saw, for example, that Gil Vicente had three or four dangerous transitions; today Chelsea, with better players than Gil Vicente, failed to create danger because the team itself was very well balanced. Maybe that's part of it. But I think, thinking about the Champions League, it's a good sign that gives us a guarantee that we can go to Newcastle, Amsterdam, and Turin and think that we can go there and steal points and make up for the 3 we lost, mainly at home to Qarabag."