Jorge Jesus praises his side's performance against the European champions

Despite missing out 2-1 and seeing his side's hopes of Champions League knock-out stage qualification dashed, coach Jorge Jesus had some much deserved words of praise, after watching his side once again put Real Madrid to the test.

"We have missed out on two big opportunities to beat Real Madrid. Only a team with the quality of Sporting could play the way we did against who for me are the best team in the world. Honestly you couldn't see the difference in individual quality between the two sides tonight", said Jesus, going on to comment on the sending off of João Pereira: "We knew the second-half would be better for us, because physically we were better and Real Madrid had a hard game against Atlético Madrid at the weekend. They wouldn't have been able to keep up, but when João got sent off Real pushed harder. Even so, we still scored. João didn't do anything wrong and Kovacic played it smart. I am fed up of saying it, but this whole fair-play thing is a bit fake. It doesn't exist in football. It it did, then Kovacic wouldn't have done what he did to trick the referee."