The coach previews the season finale against CD Santa Clara

Sporting Clube de Portugal will face CD Santa Clara this Saturday (8:30pm local time), at the Estádio José Alvalade, on the 34th and final Matchday of the Liga Portugal season.

In the runup to the game, coach Rúben Amorim analysed the team from the Azores and stressed that his side will “take advantage of every minute of play to grow as a team."

“We're going to do that against opponents who defend well and have improved a lot under Mário Silva. They're used to not losing games and they have quality players. Therefore, I foresee a difficult match -even although its without great responsibility- for both teams. We are Sporting CP and we want to give a good showing in the last game for the fans," he began by telling journalists.

"We wanted to score 88 points, but we can only reach 85 and that is the objective."
Asked about his assessment of the season, on a scale of 0-10, Amorim was peremptory in stating that “in football, it's all or nothing."

“Either you win and it's 10, or you don't win and it's 0. I don't like to give a number because there can be different interpretations, but we didn't win Liga Portugal so it's 0."
He also took stock of his own performance as coach during the season.

“I have to improve in a lot of things, whether in the way I approach the games, in my understanding of the game or how I react in moments of pressure. But all this grows with experience. When I say that the team have evolved this season and that the difference compared to last year is a big one, it also comes from the coach's experience. The coach the game differently now and knows the players better. I need to grow in everything, just like coaches with a 20-year career behind them."

Finally, Amorim surprised those present by revealing the starting XI for the last game of the season. 

“João Virgínia, Nuno Santos, Gonçalo Inácio, Sebastián Coates, Luís Neto, Pedro Porro, Daniel Bragança, João Palhinha, Pedro Gonçalves, Sarabia and Tabata will play."