The coach looks ahead to the season finale

Sporting Clube de Portugal play away at FC Vizela on Friday night, in the 34th and final Matchday of the Liga Portugal campaign.

In his pre-match press conference, coach Rúben Amorim warned of the fact that, although this last game has little at stake, it represents a chance to improve things.

“The season is not over yet. Of course the standings are decided, but we have to win the game. We are coming off a long unbeaten streak and we should have won the last game, but we have things to work on. We are going to try to improve some nuances from the game against SL Benfica," he began by saying.

“FC Vizela play in a similar way to SL Benfica, pressing with a 4-4-2 with Samu [Silva] joining the striker. They could change to a line of five as they did at Alvalade. We have worked on that aspect because we want to take advantage of every minute to improve the team, in a season in which we haven't achieved our goals. Despite this, the players grew and saw how difficult it is to play for Sporting CP. We are prepared to do better."

Amorim later revealed that 18-year-old Dário Essugo will start in midfield.

“We're going to give Dário more minutes. The fact that the B team were fighting for survival in Liga 3 and the fact that we weren't in a comfortable phase either, meant that we couldn't give him the minutes we wanted to, but he will be a steady presence in the first team next season. We have an idea, there are things in defence that we want to see in this game and the best team will play to win the game. I believe it's important to continue our run."

“Franco Israel had a great response [against SL Benfica]. We understood during the season that Adán was the best solution, but we knew that Franco had full confidence from the coaches. He took steps forward in his preparation as a goalkeeper," continued Amorim, before guaranteeing that the fight for the title will start from zero next season in all positions.

“Everyone will start from scratch and fight for their place next season; only then will we be a competitive team."

To close, he revealed the Sporting CP lineup for the game against FC Vizela: “Franco [Israel] will play, [Ricardo] Esgaio, [Gonçalo] Inácio, Seba [Coates], [Matheus] Reis, Nuno Santos, Dário [Essugo], [Hidemasa] Morita, Pote, Paulinho and [Francisco] Trincão”.