The coach reacts to a frantic finale against CS Marítimo

Upon the conclusion of Sporting Clube de Portugal's 2-1 victory over CS Marítimo, coach Rúben Amorim gave a press conference at the Artur Agostinho Auditorium at the Estádio José Alvalade.

"The quality of play was not very good, but the goals brought justice to a match in which one team wanted to win. CS Marítimo created a lot of anxiety amongst the Sporting CP players with their early goal, but the result turned out to be fair. We really wanted to turn things around, and we gave and tried everything," he began by telling journalists.

"If we hadn't conceded the goal, we could have been much better. That goal created a lot of anxiety. The players had a lot of desire, but there was a lot of rushing to do things. I never felt CS Marítimo opened up. We always pushed, but without great quality. I couldn't help them and at halftime we had to change to players with more minutes under their belts. The end of the game was chaotic: A goal for one team, a goal disallowed for another and everyone wanting to win."

Asked about the fact that, due to Antonio Adán's sending off and consequent suspension, Franco Israel will be in goal against SL Benfica next weekend, the coach stated that the Uruguayan "is a player who has evolved a lot" and that "he has already played in the UEFA Champions League."

Responding to a question about what his takeaways will be from the match, Amorim explained that, as always, he will "look at what happened and understand why we didn't play so well."

"I want to underline the character of the players. They turned the scoreline around fairly. That's the positive. In terms of the negatives, a lack of creativity, the missed passes, the players feeling the pressure of the atmosphere and the players being afraid of the ball. I have no concern about this ahead of the derby. In big games we usually have another level of performance and more quality. However, obviously, there is a lot to improve."

Another of the topics addressed was a possible guard of honour for SL Benfica if they win the title before the visit to Alvalade.

"There is no tradition of having a guard of honour in our league, and we talked about this two years ago, when there wasn't one for us. We're going to treat them the way we were treated, with all due respect."