João Pereira: “FC Porto? We must stand firm against €100m spending” | OneFootball

“It's a high-demanding game, against a team that's not from our championship, but we want to face them head-on, just like we wanted to against Sporting, but couldn't. We have another opportunity to transcend ourselves and elevate the courage that was lacking against Sporting. We have to be very courageous to play more, because in terms of organization, I believe we can bridge the gap,” he said.

In a press conference previewing the match against the 'dragons', João Pereira recalled the reception of the first round against bicampeão Sporting, in which the 'geese' lost 2-0, and guaranteed that the ambition is to conquer the three points.

“The favoritism has to be on the side of the opponent. In practice, if we are very organized, courageous, ambitious, and believe, it's halfway to getting points. I speak in the plural, with a more positive line of thought. We're going to aim for more than less. That's the mentality with which we enter here daily, to be able to beat a team that had an investment of 100 million euros,” expressed the coach of the casapianos.

João Pereira also highlighted the youth he shares with FC Porto coach Francesco Farioli, underlining that both are “curious and like to learn”, especially in a demanding start to the season.

“Playing away again is a great challenge for us. We want to take advantage of the demand of these first three rounds to feed our team's growth even more, which is constantly being reformulated and shaped into what we want,” he emphasized, about the start with Sporting, AVS, and FC Porto.

During the week, Casa Pia saw defender Isaac Monteiro and Brazilian midfielder Pablo Roberto leave the squad, and João Pereira admitted that there may still be more changes to the group, given the increase in “internal demand”.

“The internal demand is increasing, with more and more criteria. There is a base from last season and the continuity of the direction and technical team. Without them, we cannot succeed. Whoever comes, comes to add. Whoever leaves, leaves by the same path of potentiation and valorization, which is the objective,” he noted.

Goalkeeper Ricardo Batista and forwards Kelian Nsona and Clau Mendes will miss the match due to injury, while midfielder Yassin Oukili remains in doubt.

With three points, Casa Pia travels to Estádio do Dragão to face FC Porto – one of the leaders, with six points – at 18:00 on Sunday, in a match corresponding to the third round of the I Liga, which will be refereed by Sérgio Guelho, from the Associação da Guarda.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.