Jorge Jesus with the press ahead of Sunday's derby

Jorge Jesus was in the press room at Estádio José Alvalade this afternoon to share his thoughts ahead of the weekend’s much awaited derby.

“What we should be focusing on is the teams and the match. There is no point in speaking about anything else right now. We are at the top of the league and we want to defend that”, opened the Sporting coach, before going on to speak about comments made by former referee Marco Ferreira and requests made by the president of the Refereeing Council to favour Benfica.

“We have had more than enough time to prepare for this game. We know each other a lot more than we did compared to when we played in the Supercup. We are feeling really confident right now with the work we have been doing and the team is more than ready to take on a tough opponent on their own turf”, added Jesus, going on to stress that Bryan Ruiz’s place in the squad will only be decided in the morning.

Responding to a comment a journalist that Sporting hasn’t won in Estádio da Luz since 2006, curiously largely due to Jesus, the Avalade boss affirmed: “What matters is that this is Sporting’s second derby with me as coach. We won the first one and we are focused and ready to win the second. Benfica, as I well know, is a team that has six years of my work. Sporting has three months of my work and we want to carry on building on that.”

Finishing with a comment on incidents off the pitch in the build up to the derby, including the publication of players’ phones numbers in a blog associated with Benfica, Jesus said: “The lads are used to this sort of thing before games. All that matters is that we don’t attach any importance to it , because confidence is really important for the group.”

Benfica-Sporting will get underway at 17h00 on Sunday, in Estádio da Luz.