The coach previews the final four stage of the competition

Sporting Clube de Portugal take on SC Braga this Tuesday (7:45 pm local time), at the Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa in Leiria, in the semifinals of the Taça da Liga.
Coach Rúben Amorim dismissed the fact that their opponents have won just one of their last four games, insisting that they will provide a tough game.

“We only need to look at last season. In the quarter-finals, SC Braga were doing very well in the league and we were not -we had been eliminated from the Taça de Portugal and the Champions League- but we managed to win. It will be almost a final around the city of Leiria and everything that has happened in the league will have no influence," the coach began by saying at his pre-match press conference, highlighting his desire to win the competition again.

“We spent a season without winning trophies, so it became mandatory to win silverware this season. We have this opportunity and I value the Taça da Liga a lot, because I won several as a player and it had a great meaning when I won it with SC Braga, in a difficult stage at the beginning of my career. It was a decisive moment for us, the coaching staff, to gain confidence to carry out our work."

Analysing SC Braga, he told journalists “They are opponents who can change some players, as they have been doing throughout the season, and that changes the way they play. If you play Bruma, he is different from Rony Lopes. We are talking about internationals, they have a very good squad and one of the best coaches in the club's history. I expect a very tough game between two teams who want to reach the final and get the trophy. For us, it is mandatory to win trophies this season and we want to start that now.”
Amorim then confirmed the starting roles for Franco Israel, a goalkeeper who has been in the XI for every Taça da Liga game so far this term, and Francisco Trincão, who is in excellent form and has scored in three of the last four games.

“They will be two of the starters, in response to the impact they have had on the team, the importance they have and how we believe in them,” stressed the coach, revealing that Matheus Reis and Jeremiah St. Juste will be in the squad.

 “St. Juste is very limited in terms of playing minutes, but is another option for this match. Matheus Reis has recovered, trained for two days and he felt good, so we’ll see.”
As for the attack, the coach did not want to reveal Paulinho's possible starting role alongside Viktor Gyökeres.

“I'm not going to say if Paulinho will play with Gyökeres. I said Trincão would play but Artur Jorge doesn't know which side that will be. If I say that Paulinho will play, then he will know where Trincão will play”, he said, before informing that Pedro Gonçalves “is a doubt.”

 “He has a problem with his foot, tomorrow we will test him out and we will see."

Amorim concluded by talking about the current format of the Taça da Liga.

“I am more in favour of this group stage, even though it is shorter. Although it is set up to have a final four with the best teams, and this can be seen by the attention it creates, all professional teams must have the opportunity to compete. I am speaking against myself because it overloads our schedule, but sometimes we have to make sacrifices so that everyone has the opportunity to compete and to give more value to the competition.

"A Taça da Liga in which all professional clubs participate has more value than just the four main clubs competing against each other. I like this format because it gives everyone a chance to play and I value the competition a lot, because a trophy is a trophy and it's a chance for Sporting CP to get silverware again this season."