The Portuguese coach, Ferdinand Santos, stated after drawing 1-1 against Spain in Seville, at the premiere of the III edition of the League of Nationswho believes that “the result is neither good nor bad for either of the two teams”, in a game in which “both” were looking to “win”.
In the press room of the stadium Benito Villamarin, the Portuguese coach considered that it was “a very intense game to be the end of the season” and “very tremendous in terms of intensity” between two teams that “have the ball” and that, in the case of Spain, “it is very strong ” with the ball because “he plays very simple and has a lot of patience to look for spaces”.
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about the substitution of Cristiano Ronaldo, who entered in the 62nd minute for Otavio, explained that it was due “to a question of tactical management”, since he opted for André Silva as he is “a player who works and closes well, who can do several things, while Cristiano has other things he does very well and that’s why he’s the best in the world”, and added: “it’s an option, but we’ve got four games and he’s ready, as always”.
Of the match, Santos admitted that at the beginning they had “some difficulties, but from the 8th minute onwards it was balanced, with two teams that have played to win and that have tried at all times”, although he said that “when it was more even” and they had created some occasion, “the goal came from Spain in a counterattack”.
“This is a rare situation in this type of match. These are situations that are not allowed. Afterwards, we lost a bit, although later, with a lot of will, we managed to balance the match again, but always with difficulties because it is not easy, there are very good players in both teams,” he stressed.
The Portuguese coach also acknowledged that in the first half they lacked “that patience that Spain had until the moment of attacking in depth” and that his team committed “the little sin” of trying to arrive with direct football and looking excessively for Rafael Leao “, when if you lose the ball against rivals like the Spanish, it generates “difficulties”.
“We had to have known how to exploit the depth (in the game) in a different way. Even so, in the second half we entered better and, with the substitutions we have been able to change the game because before we came from the left, but little from the right, and we lacked to fix to its lateral ones”, indicated.
For this reason, he specified Saintsgave input to Gonçalo Guedes and Ricardo Hortawho play “inwards”, which allowed the sides of his team to go deeper, and said that it worked because “that’s how the goal came, in a good movement and a center” finished off by Horta, although in the end “Spain He tried again and also had an excellent chance.”
