Jorge Jesus with the press ahead of tomorrow's visit to Braga

Jorge Jesus was with the press in the Estádio José Alvalade Auditorium this Tuesday afternoon to speak about this week's Portuguese Cup visit to Braga.

“We Know that this is a cup match with very specific characteristics. No points can be won and it will be decided on the day. In my opinion, Sp. Braga is the team closest to the big three in terms of quality. We know that this will be a difficult match because of of the quality of their players and because they have a good coach, but we are confident", affirmed the Alvalade boss, adding: "The fact that we will travel to Braga means that we won't have time to prepare for the match. We have just focused on recovery like Braga have, who also played on Sunday. The most important thing is that luckily we haven't picked up any problems, with the exception of Teo who we already knew about. It will be a hard game and we will suffer a lot, because Sp. Braga will make life difficult for our defence."

In parallel, Jorge Jesus responded to a question on complaints being made by Sporting's rivals about match refereeing, while highlighting that Sporting are top of the league on merit: Look, the Refereeing Council is the same, the president who picks the referees is the name. What is changed is that Sporting is in first and people aren't used to it. That is all that has changed, everything else is the same. Nobody can take credit away from us for what we have done in every competition. We won the first trophy this season and we are at the top of the league with 11 wins and 2 draws in 13 matches. Now we are playing in the cup again, where we have already beaten one of our rivals and we will face the same team we did last season in the final. The people who are speculating are doing so because they were not expecting a strong Sporting at the top of the league."

Sp. Braga-Sporting will get underway at 20h00 on Wednesday the 16th of December, in the Braga Municipal Stadium.