Coach Rui Borges said today that Sporting are driven by belief and ambition as they seek to overturn their Champions League round of 16 tie against Bodø/Glimt, going in search of an “almost perfect” performance.
“I know the difficulties are great, but I believe strongly in the resilience and individual and collective capacity this team has shown throughout the season. The team wants very much to give a different image and show it is capable of continuing to make Sporting’s history in a positive way. We know we will have to play an almost perfect game and we are going in search of that. The ambition is enormous,” he said.
At the pre-match press conference, Borges acknowledged the second leg will be “necessarily different” given the very favourable result for the Norwegian side, who won 3-0.
Read more: Champions: Sporting lose 3-0 in Norway (with video)
“In the first leg we were not able to bring the right intensity to nullify Bodø/Glimt. We will have to be even more ambitious, courageous and bold. We know we have to score goals, but we cannot concede and make the situation even worse. We will be aware of the dangers we will face at certain moments, but we have to be prepared for everything,” he said.
The coach praised Bodø/Glimt’s “very extraordinary” physical capacity — a crucial factor in how they have overcome several Champions League contenders — but pointed to Sporting’s own journey in the competition. “If there is a team capable, through resilience and the ability to respond, it is ours. And if there is a stadium capable of extraordinary things, it is ours. The fans will be an extraordinary force for us all to make a positive story together and continue to grow,” he said.
Borges, 44, maintained doubts over the fitness of Brazilian winger Luís Guilherme, who suffered an ankle sprain in Sunday’s training session and was being assessed today, and also addressed the postponement of the league fixture against Tondela.
“We took advantage of something the regulations allowed. We had games of a very high level of demand and it was good to be able to rest a little before the two round of 16 legs. We have the right to have more days to recover as fully as possible so the team is increasingly capable of responding,” said the Mirandela-born coach.
Sporting and Bodø/Glimt meet on Tuesday at 17:45 at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon, with Swiss referee Sandro Schärer in charge.
