<br><div> <p data-end="71" data-start="0"><em><strong>*By Arménio Pereira</strong></em></p> <p data-end="71" data-start="0"><em><strong>Carlos Vicens, coach of Sp. Braga, speaking at the press conference after the 1-0 victory against Tondela, in the 18th round of the National Championship:</strong></em></p> <h2 data-end="71" data-start="0"><strong>Strong emotions at the end</strong></h2> <p data-end="505" data-start="73">«Yes, the game entered at a different time. He said it in <em data-end="153" data-start="146">flash interview.</em> The team reminded me of those last 15 or 20 minutes of the game against Rangers, in the Europa League, this season, in which the team was also left with one player less and never gave up, continued to fight, managed to get a draw and, even with one less player, after drawing in Glasgow, continued looking for victory, which they ended up not achieving, but which they were close to. Today the team reminded me of that. I think there was a great collective effort. I believe the game started with the team looking for the result, looking for victory, trying to dominate, trying to create chances, which wasn't easy because, when we reached the most advanced areas of the field, there was a lot of accumulation of players. Still, one or two opportunities arose in the first half; We had a very clear chance in a corner, those second balls that we ended up not turning into chances, but we were there controlling it. It's true that the second part opens up a little more, also because we ended up exposing ourselves a little more. There starts to be more spaces and the misfortune of suffering a penalty against us, with expulsion, arises. And then what at other times, or recently, we felt internally that football had taken from us at certain times, today it gave us. With this good defense, obviously from Lucas [Hornicek]and then the team's ambition to go in search of the goal gave us the penalty that we ended up scoring. So this is an analysis of a game that had different moments. It becomes a little more chaotic at the end, but I think the team's spirit, the energy, looking for the game, gave us the chance to get the penalty and get the victory. Well, I think the team came out to win throughout the game, that is, the team never speculated on the result. And I believe that the fact that you were left with one less player and, still, went as you did to attack, even generating opportunities to be close to the goal, with some shot blocked, with some good intervention from Bernardo, that energy that you transmitted today to football, to the game, allowed you to achieve victory. So, I wouldn’t say by a very large margin, but I believe the team deserved the victory.”</p> <h2 data-end="2430" data-start="2323"><b>What's missing for Sp. Braga to be consistent</b></h2> <p data-end="2859" data-start="2432">«Well, I think what was missing was being able to always maintain a very high level, which is not easy, especially within a process with a new coach, who brought new ideas and who, from the first game, practically had to play in finals, because they were qualifiers for access to the group stage of the Europa League. Then, also with a calendar in which the first games required the achievement of points. Therefore, from the beginning there was this demand that will always exist at Braga, but which meant that the team barely had time to breathe. Within this growth process, you always had to compete to win and there were ups and downs along the way. Recently too, with highly demanding games, in which the team came close to winning and then, sometimes, suffered a hard blow in the form of a draw or a defeat, as in the final. All of this means that maintaining consistency throughout the season has not been easy. We are looking for that, we are looking for the team to now focus on these two competitions we are in and try to get closer to that regularity of the best Braga that we have seen more frequently. And that’s what we work for every day.”</p> <h2 data-end="3810" data-start="3675"><b>Tondela team surprised</b></h2> <p data-end="4241" data-start="3812">«I think this is another question for a Tondela coach, for Cristiano [Bacci]. For me, obviously, the feeling it gave me was that whenever there was an uncovered ball situation, they could create this threat to which we had to be very attentive, which forced us to always have the players with the ball under pressure, so they didn't have time to raise their heads and play a deep ball. It's a bit of an analysis that I can give you, but, as I said, it's more of a question for Tondela, because they will certainly be able to explain better what they were looking for with this change.”</p> <h2 data-end="4495" data-start="4428"><strong>Praise for Tondela</strong></h2> <p data-end="4495" data-start="4428">«It's a team that you know you have to be careful about offering too many dead ball opportunities, because it can penalize you, and it's also a team that you know has threats down the aisles and in depth, with the new signing of Aïko and with Maranhão. With these types of players you can never be calm, because even if you are controlling the game, any mistake, any attack attempt that doesn't work and in which you don't get the second ball in transition, makes them a dangerous team. We had talked a lot about trying to control that and I think in the first half we did that quite well. But then, when the game opened up more in the second half, these threats almost became reality several times, even without generating many clear scoring opportunities. But it was something we always had to be very attentive to. Therefore, the type of game that the second half turned into didn’t surprise me, given the weapons that Tondela has.”</p> </div>