Ricardo Esgaio's analysis of Sporting's triumph over Amarante (6-0), in a game in the 4th round of the Portuguese Cup.
Ricardo Esgaio, Sporting full-back
Golo: “It's a source of pride to be able to score a goal, and it's important to protect the team's work. He took the game seriously.”
Change: “It was a normal two weeks, as expected. With the new coach, we are assimilating some different ideas, but the base is practically the same, and everything is natural. It's been good. The team is well, confident, and achieved a Big win. I think we're on the right track.”
New ideas: “Obviously, these are things that we've been working on, and it's going to be noticeable. I'm not going to explain what we've been working on. We also have players who came close to the game and who are still going to adapt.”
Fan support: “I couldn't have expected anything else. I congratulate them and thank them for helping us at all times.
Premieres by João Simões and Henrique Arreiol: “They are two quality boys, who know the coach's ideas, and that makes everything easier. Congratulations to them.”
John's request: “We know what João is like. He has things that still have similarities (to the player) and he asks us to do our best. Only then will the quality appear to win games.”
Daniel Bragança, Sporting midfielder
Analysis: “Very positive, we managed to assimilate the new nuances that the coach brought. We ended up scoring six goals, but I believe we could have scored more, but Amarante is also an excellent team, which is having an excellent championship. We ended up playing a good game and six goals is fair result.”
Working with the new manager: “Positive. Many kids last week, there was no time to train with the whole team, only yesterday (Thursday) before the game and before the game we did little… We will have time to spend more time together training and acquiring these new nuances as quickly as possible to do what Mister João Pereira wants”.
Think not Arsenal: “Calmly. We know it's a great team and we'll try to do our best to win, knowing it's a great team. But we've already made the Sporting fans believe and they believe in us more than ever and we'll try to give them another happiness”.
