Sporting coach Ruben Amorim said this Saturday that the players’ fatigue “is not an excuse” for not beating Arouca in the I Football League and stressed that an extra day of recovery “is crucial”.
In Alcochete, at a press conference for Sunday’s match, the coach admitted that the team was “lowering the intensity a little bit” and explained that he wanted the players to “understand” why, but assured that the team would “be better.”
“This is not an excuse for anything. We have to win the game, this is not an excuse in the case of Arouca, as it was not the case with Rio Ave. We know what we are going to find, a sequence of actions. [de jogos] we had, but we will be ready and will definitely be strong,” said the coach at the Sports Academy.
This theme dominated the preview of the match of the 25th round, and the coach had already guaranteed that he would not make “any savings” and that Sporting would play “at full strength”, especially since “in these three days [desde o jogo da Liga Europa com a Atalanta] and with the leadership he has given the group, Sporting should “win the game”.
“Three days or two days may not seem like much, but it makes a big difference. And when we had a sequence where we always played three games with two days between games, it was impossible to maintain the same rhythm even doing the rotation that we were doing. “, he said. Amorim.
Moreover, the visit to Arouca is again decisive, despite the fact that the coach admitted that he felt the need to win also during the visits to Desportivo de Chaves, Moreirense or Rio Ave and that he therefore no longer knows “what is decisive”
“And here I feel the same, that this is a decisive game, a moment when everyone knows that Sporting will play on a very difficult pitch, against a very motivated team, so I say nothing more. All games are decisive, this one. This is different, and it is important to defeat him,” he concluded.
Sporting will visit Arroca on Sunday for the 25th round of the Portuguese Football League, which will start at 18:00 at the Arroca Municipal Stadium and will be officiated by Nuno Almeida (FF Lisbon).
The Lions coach, who is still without goalkeeper Adan due to a muscle injury, said however that Gonzalo Inacio and Pedro Goncalves, who have been absent for some of the last matches, “will be called up.”
The team coached by Ruben Amorim leads the I League standings with 59 points, one more than Benfica and four more than Porto, but is one game behind since matchday 20 , from “Famalikao”, and the “dragons” have already played and won. (3-0 in Portimao) in the 25th round.
Arouca remain in seventh place with 34 points and are climbing the rankings with six wins from the last seven rounds, in which they only lost to Casa Pia on February 18, 1–0.