The coach gives a post-mortem on the Taça da Liga elimination

At the end of Sporting Clube de Portugal's 1-0 defeat against SC Braga, coach Rúben Amorim said that elimination from the Taça da Liga "will not have an impact" on the remaining objectives.

"We have the other competitions to win. It will be mandatory to win trophies this year. There is more pressure on us because there is one less trophy available, but it doesn't change what we want to do. The pressure is the same, we want to win the other silverware up for grabs," he began by telling journalists at the Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa in Leiria.

"What we were missing were goals. After SC Braga's goal we were lost, because I changed things when I should have let the team settle down. I already had that substitution in mind. What went wrong was that SC Braga scored from their only opportunity, while we had many chances and we couldn't," he said.

Asked about the support shown by the many thousands of Sportinguistas at the end of the match, the coach stated that "There are games in which one team are superior, but don't dominate at all times and the fans are not satisfied. The fans are certainly not happy with us losing out on a trophy, but the Sportinguistas see a team giving everything and they support us because there are more honours at stake. This doesn't end here and we have four months to go in a final sprint."

"I can't fight facts, but I look at the games this year and there hasn't been a game in which we weren't the better side and deserved to lose - apart from against Atalanta BC [in Alvalade in the Champions League] in the first half. What matters is the result, I understand that, but I look at the team and I feel they have good things. In the end we'll see if they have what it takes. We only lost control of the game for five minutes, but SC Braga weren't better at any stage of the game and that's also a fact -although not as tangible as the result," he commented, before saying that he expects the fans to be out in force against Casa Pia AC.

"The Sportinguistas will almost certainly fill the Estádio José Alvalade. We have to regain our strength and go after the ball with more hunger. We really want to win. There will still be a lot of things that happen before the end of the championship and there are four months coming up in which we will want to achieve our objectives."

Finally, Amorim commented on Eduardo Quaresma's form: "We have seen the games. He has been a surprise for everyone. The way he plays and attacks... There is no need for the coach to be talking about the ability he has demonstrated in the last few games."