Jorge Jesus on his side's draw with Rio Ave

While frustrated by his side's ineffectiveness in front of goal Monday night, Jorge Jesus highlighted the quality of his side's performance against an in-form Rio Ave outfit.

“It was a good game against a good team, but we did enough to win. We had various chances, but we couldn't make the most of them. Rio Ave deserve credit, because they defended well and hit us on the break. We knew that it would be hard and this is how the season will be until the last day, with lots of points won and lost", said the Sporting boss in his post-match interview, adding a word on the debuting pair of Sebastián Coates and Hernán Barcos: “Coates showed that he is an excellent player in his very first match. He looked really secure, showed experience and was strong. With a bit of confidence he will score as well. We were solid in defensive, which is positive. What wasn't so positive was that we failed to win three points."

To finish, Jesus dismissed the suggestion of anxiety following Benfica's result et the weekend: "That kind of question doesn't exist for the players in the top teams. They are prepared for that sort of thing and it just washes off them. We can do the math after every match, but what we want is the capacity to be in first at the end of the season."