The coach's view on the 5-0 win against SC Braga

Rúben Amorim was satisfied with the 5-0 win over SC Braga, as he told the press in his post-match press conference.

“We are in excellent form, but the important thing for me, besides celebrating the victories, being happy with our performance and not conceding goals, is to look at each game and understand the story behind it. In the same way that we said that the defeat in the Taça da Liga was totally unfair, with a misleading result, I also think that today the victory was clearly fair, but the scoreline was very hefty for what happened on the pitch. Therefore, my big concern is to give a lot of credit to the players, and I want them to be very happy, but tomorrow I will start to understand what happens in each game: what happened at the beginning of the second half, how we got to 5-0, because it’s important that we don’t concede goals,” the coach began by saying, praising the support from the Sportinguistas.

“They help us a lot. Last year, even when we were playing well but missed an opportunity, the team were very nervous. Now it's the opposite. Even if an opportunity is missed, everyone in the stadium feels that the team will create more opportunities and score more goals -and that is a very good sign."

Against SC Braga, Sporting CP were always ahead and in control, even though in the first 20 minutes of the second half the away team threatened to get back into the match.

“The game became much more difficult then and I, as a coach, was obviously worried because we were making mistakes in the first phase of our press. That was how we had scored the goals and controlled things in the first half. If one of the moves in which they pushed us into our area had ended up with the ball going in, the game would have been completely different, but we managed to do that to SC Braga. However, in this game and unlike others, we were effective at the key moments and had the luck.”

Asked whether Sporting CP deserve to be Liga Portugal champions for what they have done so far, Amorim said that it is too early to talk about the title.

“That is completely irrelevant. Until the 20th matchday, there were phases in which one team played better, others worse. As happened in today's game, I think we were better in the first half and for 20 minutes of the second half they were better, but we scored the goals and killed off SC Braga in mind and body. Therefore, I say again: it is completely irrelevant who deserves to be champions on Matchday 21. The important thing is to reach the end as champions."

He also spoke about Francisco Trincão, saying that, at this point, “he is physically stronger, more daring and, above all, closer to the confidence he had when he left SC Braga for FC Barcelona.”

On Eduardo Quaresma, who also scored from an unusual move, he added: “We've seen him do these things, it's a lot like him and he's been doing this since he was a kid. So it has nothing to do with the coach. It’s a lot down to his ability and the quality he has when he has the ball.”