Benfica lost 2-1 on their visit to Estádio José Alvalade, in the first leg of the Portuguese Cup 23/24 semi-finals and, at the end of the match, Roger Schmidt and João Mário, in the flash interview that followed the match, They regretted the referee team’s decision to cancel Di Maria’s goal, which would have given the Eagles 2-2.
Roger Schmidt
“There was no offside in Di María’s goal, that’s my opinion. It was a clean goal, the goalkeeper could do everything, it was a normal goal, it was a beautiful goal, but unfortunately the referee had an opinion different, mine is very clear. It was a difficult game, during the first half we had a lot of difficulties, Sporting had a lot of intensity. In the second half we were better, but we were good in the defensive areas and we created some chances and scored a goal.”
“In a few weeks we will play at our stadium and if we win we will go to the final. It’s not just about what my players did or didn’t do in this game, sometimes we have to accept that we played against a very good team, who were dominant in transitions and difficult to stop. What could this game mean for Sunday’s game against FC Porto? The same as all the others.”
João Mario
“We know that Sporting plays well at home, they started well and created some difficulties for us in the first half. But we knew that the game would open up in the second half. The second half was all ours. We scored two goals and I’m still trying to understand why that the second was disallowed. But this result leaves everything open, we have one game at home to reach the final. I’ve already seen an image of the goal, in my opinion it looks like a clean goal, but it doesn’t count, we lost the game, now we have another one at home to reverse the situation. We are confident”
See the best images from the meeting