“Forgetting the name of the clubs, which I don’t want to go there, I would say it was better for us than the first placed [o FC Porto] lost”, the coach of the third-placed team, in Seixal, let slip in a press conference previewing the meeting with Alverca.
Before, however, Mourinho had already assumed that winning the match on the 21st round “is the only result that matters” to Benfica, because, if that doesn’t happen, “the game on Monday [entre FC Porto e Sporting] becomes of very little significance” for his team.
On the 20th round, FC Porto suffered their first defeat in the championship, losing 2-1 against Casa Pia, after Benfica drew 1-1 at Tondela, while Sporting won 2-1 against Nacional, with another goal in stoppage time.
These results kept Benfica in third place, but five points behind Sporting and nine behind FC Porto, opponents who will face each other on Monday, at Estádio do Dragão, in Porto.
Despite the distance that separates the Luz club from the top of the rankings, the former coach of the ‘blues and whites’, now at Luz, assures that he is “very pragmatic” and that he is “hunting” for first place.
“At this moment it is mathematically possible to turn things around. Let’s go after them! Now, as I said before, so that on Monday we can wait for the result of the game with someone losing points, if not both, just winning. We have to win tomorrow [no domingo]”, he reinforced.
Benfica hosts Alverca on Sunday, in a match from the 21st round of the Portuguese Football League starting at 8:30 pm, at Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon, refereed by Bruno Costa [AF Viana do Castelo].
In case of victory, the team led by José Mourinho guarantees that it will recover ‘ground’ in relation to at least one of the two rivals that remain at the top of the championship, FC Porto, which leads with 55 points, and Sporting, which follows behind, with 51, five more than the 46 recorded by the ‘reds’.
Alverca, coached by Custódio Castro, remains in 10th place, with 24 points that place it, according to the ‘incarnate’ coach, “in peace and not under the pressure of fighting to stay”.
“It’s a team that doesn’t create many scoring opportunities, but it does score goals. A dangerous team”, warned Mourinho.
