The coach reviews the win over Paços de Ferreira

After Sporting Clube de Portugal secured their place in the fourth round of the Taça de Portugal, Rui Borges reflected on his side's showing in the game.

The importance of progressing to the Fourth Round
"It's incredibly important because it was a goal of ours. Regarding the match itself, we knew we'd face challenges in this one. There are no easy games. Cup games have their own character, but we had a tremendous flow in attack and missed some opportunities to score. Sometimes that was through our own fault, other times through the opponent's merit. On the two occasions when FC Paços de Ferreira created chances, they managed to convert them.

Sporting CP put in a huge effort. In the first half, we only created chances from one-on-ones, but in the second half we improved with the substitutions: Iván [Fresneda] came on and was very dynamic, and Zeno [Debast] gives us a different edge in the build-up play. Geny [Catamo] also gave us more pace. We were always capable of creating chances, but, thanks to the way the FC Paços de Ferreira coach set them up, they managed to take us into extra time. We knew that if we kept going, we would eventually score, and fortunately, we did."

The fatigue caused by extra time
"It can't be used as an excuse. I'm not going to dwell on it. We didn't want to [play] those 30 minutes because it meant a lot of wear and tear for us. We tried to turn the game around in the 90 minutes, which is why we turned to Geny and Luis [Suárez], even though they were still tired from international duty, because they're players who can change things quickly.

The game on Wednesday against Olympique de Marseille
The team will be motivated; it's a UEFA Champions League game at home, in front of our fans —who were once again very important in supporting the team away from home today, and it will be the same on Wednesday. The team will give a good response."

Alisson's first start
"We know very well what Alisson brings to the table. Today we faced a team in a very low block, and he gives us one-on-one opportunities. I'm happy with the excellent performance he had. He's growing, figuring out how to get more minutes, and it's a credit to him that he got this chance. He'll get more minutes from now on, because he understands the demands of Sporting CP. He showed that today."

Ousmane Diomande
"He had a cramp and fatigue, nothing more than that. You can see he's not at his best yet, but he held out until he reached his limit. Now it's time to rest and prepare for the match against Olympique de Marseille."