The coach previews the latest Liga Portugal encounter

Ahead of Sporting CP's fourth game in the space of thirteen days, facing SC Farense at the Estádio São Luís, coach Rúben Amorim gave a press conference to discuss the trip to the south of Portugal. However, he would start by commenting on the draw for the Taça de Portugal, which put CD Olivais e Moscavide on the team's path to the final.

"It's a cup game, against a local team who are very close to us, which is good, because that way we don't have to make a long journey when we have a lot of games. They have a coach who did the Level I coaching course with me and we have to remember what happened to us last season. Obviously, Varzim SC were a Liga 3 club at the time, but we were eliminated and we really want to do better this year", he pointed out.

As for SC Farense, Amorim stated that "it's going to be a very difficult game, different from the match against Rio Ave FC and against a coach who is more experienced than all of us here at Sporting CP. They will be waiting for our transitions and every detail will count. They will be dangerous from dead balls, we cannot lose the ball and we have to have very long possessions. It’s a slightly narrower pitch than ours, so we have also narrowed our pitch in training and that makes a difference".

SC Farense are currently 11th with six points, with the eighth best attack (9 goals) and the seventh best defense (8 conceded).

"They are an experienced team, with nothing to lose, who have already beaten SC Braga, but we know what we have to do. Our idea involves having the ball, not losing it, creating opportunities and, above all, not conceding goals, because we have 90 minutes – or 100 with added time – to score once", he outlined.

"They have more freedom against big teams, they defend well and have more space to make transitions. They always play with a lot of intensity and have less responsibility and more space to attack against the big teams. I expect a SC Farense that want to win, but so do we and we want to maintain our position, which is first place in the table. That's the objective of the game. We want to finish the weekend in first place and that's down to us. If we win we will be top, whether outright or not, but that is the main thing".

As for his squad, Amorim said that "Viktor Gyökeres is fit for the game, and after a scare Ousmane Diomande has recovered. Jeremiah St. Juste continues to undertake his recovery and is getting closer to returning, and Afonso Moreira and João Muniz are injured".

The team are looking for their fourth consecutive victory and are still undefeated in 2023/24, helped by having competition in the squad.

"It is good to have several players in excellent form, but that is not only the forwards, because the defenders are doing well too. In midfield there is a very healthy fight for places and the pairing has been changed from game to game. I simply look at the characteristics and sometimes players who are in good form start on the bench because that game may not need them at the beginning. It is impossible to include all the players in form, because it can ruin the team's dynamics -which is the most important thing".

"What I feel is that we have been more consistent because we haven't conceded goals, we always end up scoring and we have controlled our games. Tomorrow is a different game and a difficult fixture, in which there will be a lot of battles. Maybe there will be times when we don't play very well and we have to adapt to all types of games".