On the eve of this confrontation head coach of Lisbon team Bruno is bearing shared his expectations:
– How important is you involved in the World Club Championship and what are your prospects in your future game?
– Being here is a great pleasure, and we intend to spend a wonderful match and win our first game in this tournament.
– Is Alvaro Carreras ready to go to Real Madrid?
– First, there should be a proposal, and then “Benfica” must reach the agreement. He can go to Real, but we need to agree. I am sure that any Benfiki player with a game like Alvaro will be able to stand for any team of the world. He will not be the first player to leave us and play a European club.
– Bavaria won with a score of 10: 0, how important will be the game with “Boca Juniors”?
– Yes, it’s important. We play in a short competition with three games as at the World Cup. This is an important game. We know the opponent, analyze this team and try to win. This is a strong team.
Our approach to this trophy should be very similar to the matches when players play for their national teams. This is not the end of the season and not the beginning, they should be focused on what we can do. The team should play as one family.
– Did you take into account the fact that Boka Huniors has great public support?
– We also have fans everywhere, I believe that there will be many fans of “Benfika” that will support us. There is an important factor to consider – weather conditions. But players have the opportunity to show the world their football, play the highest level, even in the heat.
– Bavaria won with a devastating account. Can the difference of scored and missed balls matter?
– Yes, there will be only three games, every three points are very important. We know that we will go to the field against a strong team, but also “Boko Huniors” knows that they also have a meeting with a difficult rival. We have Argentine players who won the World Cup, and they have already given us valuable information. And, yes, Di Maria will turn out in the starting lineup.
– What would Benfiki coach in this competition? At what stage should the team be?
– We need to think that we are going to the tournament with great ambitions. Many players were with their national teams, I spent only two or three days with them, we need to understand which of them can give immediate energy and productivity. We have big ambitions to go through a group stage – we need to be decisive to carry out a powerful campaign. It will be an interesting test, we must be competitive.
– Do you believe that European teams will dominate the US?
– This issue has been discussed for 20 or 30 years, and I do not know how to answer it today. I had experience on different continents. Benfica and Boka Huniors are two individual teams with a great history. Argentina – World Champion, Portugal won the League of Nations. This is a difficult question that we will answer later.
We had the opportunity to call some players from the youth team and we were able to find them better. There are positions that need to be filled, one of them is a right defender, but we did not want to buy football players only for them to be present at the World Cup. Whoever comes, he should be a quality player.
Source: Sport.ua