The Sporting CP coach talks before the game against Arsenal

Ahead of his first UEFA Champions League game in charge, against Arsenal, João Pereira highlighted that Sporting CP are prepared to continue their good run in the competition.

“The level will increase, the degree of difficulty will be greater, but we are prepared. Arsenal have seven points, having only conceded one goal -and that was a penalty. They are a strong team defensively and will create many difficulties for us with their attacking moves, in which they are very strong," Pereira began by saying, adding: “Arsenal have good players, good individuals, are strong on the wings, create many opportunities and score many goals, but I am more concerned with and focused on our structure. We also have great players, who are having a fantastic campaign in the Champions League and who will want to continue giving a good response."

Eduardo Quaresma and Zeno Debast did not train on Monday and are in doubt for the match, but the coach did not close the door on the possibility of them playing.

“They both have small knocks and will be in doubt until the start of the game, but if they are not fit, we have other players ready to respond," he assured.

He clarified that Sporting CP will play as they have done until now, with small differences after Rúben Amorim's departure.

“Removing Sporting CP's identity would mean taking away the identity of the players, and taking away from them what they are used to doing. We know that we won't be able to press the entire game all over the pitch, because it's difficult and you can't even do that in Portugal. There will be moments when the opponents will have more possession of the ball and we will have to close the spaces well and choose the right moment to break out from the pressure. We know very well that Arsenal are a team that will cause us problems, but we want to continue having good games and scoring a lot of goals.”

“Anyone who was paying attention to the B team knows that this team used a similar formation to the main team. There were different behaviour or nuances, but the principles were the same. We are lucky to be taking over team that already have the principles we have used, but it takes time. The players are in good form, they understand things well and anything that changes will be for the better, but it will come little by little," he said.

“Taking into account what Sporting CP had been doing before the game with Manchester City, the players were already aiming to reach the playoffs. It was a morale-boosting victory, which helped a lot, but it only gave us three points and, therefore, everyone has their feet firmly on the ground and knows that the game against Arsenal will be different."

“The objectives are defined from the beginning of the season. We are well positioned, we have a game tomorrow and at the end we will do the maths, knowing that there are still four games to go.”

In his first press conference, Pereira was also asked about the possibility of Viktor Gyökeres further attracting the interest of other European clubs, but he stated that he is not worried about that.

“I hope that Viktor has a great performance and can score a lot of goals."