A BOLA – “I don’t have space on a piece of paper to indicate all the merits of Benfica” (Tondela)

Benfica and Tondella meet on Sunday, at Studio da Luz (18 hours) in the fourth round match of the 2021/2022 League. Envisioning the confrontation between the two teams that comes from different outcomes, coach Paku Astaran spoke of a match in which the list of difficulties to overcome will be extensive.

The embodiments come from a win over Gil Vicente and motivated by their entry into the Champions League, Perez was defeated at home by Portimonense: “We are up against a great team, a great club, with great players and a coach who doesn’t. It will allow the team to relax.” On a tactical level, he is able to go inside and out, “I don’t have space on the paper to indicate all the difficulties we are going to face, but of course we have to be prepared for them.”

Paco Astaran realizes that the only way for Tondela to stop Benfica’s power is to try to cover all the holes, “because of course when the blanket is short, sometimes you cover your feet and leave your head away and vice versa, but let’s try to widen the blanket as much as possible”. So there are no weaknesses in the opponent that can be exploited? The Tondela coach replies: “Teams at this level often focus so much on the offensive side that they can struggle with the transition … but at the moment they are defending that transition at a very, very high level.”

Football is a game of mistakes, players do unusual things, but often things also happen because of opponents’ mistakes. It will always exist because the players are human, “to see if at this moment we are able to benefit … it is a game that we have to be very close to each other, trying to control the presentation of Benfica.”

The Reds have players who attack with good depth, let this game serve us as a team to continue to develop.” More than the virtues Tondela might have to face Benfica, they repeat the same idea as the other previews including in the message they convey to the players: «In every match there is an opportunity and in this game I am convinced that there will be too … Let’s prepare the match the way we think it is. We can have more chances against a team like Benfica.”

Paco Astaran sees a more balanced opponent between attack and defense and above all how to defend the transition, something that did not happen often last season. Until August 31, there is still a possibility to improve the Tondela team: “We are only looking at if he is the right player …”, rejecting the idea that the “killer” is not in the team like Mario González. “It’s too early to do these analyzes…we have top players up front, a lot, Danny. [Daniel dos Anjos] Wrenat [Dadashov] And of course it is very difficult for Tondella to have another player who can score 15 or 16 goals… We also know that we will have to divide the goals among more players,” he said.

The idea that Benfica can be more relaxed after a series of winning matches is reinforced, firstly because their coach does not allow it: “They face equal matches against teams as big or small as us. At this time of the season, having more matches in a team like Benfica could benefit…”. He concluded that the explanation is that at these early stages of the season, continuous matches allow players to gain the fastest form… “and there is a positive emotional state after they have passed the Champions League where they were at a high level”.