“Concluding the year by gifting our fans with victory would be our wish. Tying this into good performance would be the perfect wish. The working group deserves that too and this is how we will try to end the year.”
In this upbeat state of mind, Aruca’s coach, Armando Evangelista, kicked off the match presentation against SC Braga. The coach praises Arsenal’s value, but trusts the reaction of his players on the pitch.
“Braga is fighting for different goals than ours, they are a team from European competitions and they bring that ambition in every game. But our ambition will not be less, as we want to end the year with a victory”, repeated the coach, who enters the match conditional on nine injuries: Kouassi and Leandro Silva (suspended), Pedro Moreira, Moses, Velazquez, Fernando Castro (injured), Thiago Esgayo (on loan from Braga), Marco Soares (from the Cape Verdean national team) and Bruno (in isolation from Covid-19).
A set of problems that Armando Evangelista prefers, rather than lament, to answer with solutions.
“We have players with Covid-19, but we don’t always cry. We have a team and the important thing is that everyone has ambition.” In Arouca, alternatives to fencing with warriors were studied. “We can play with two strikers or put another player in defense to balance spaces. The idea is to put one more defender and play a line of three or add a player up front and play in 4-4-2”, explains coach Arroca, who still has the last hours to make the final decisions on the eleventh that will start the meeting.
“Braga is very comfortable with the ball and it’s up to us to make Braga uncomfortable because we control possession,” Evangelista added of the tactic to curb guest favouritism.
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