The media were always going to clamber to ask questions about the much awaited return of Izmailov, Rinaudo and Ricky van Wolfswinkel to the squad list and Domingos wasted little time in hailing the qualities of the three: “They are all alright to play tomorrow. They are three good options and the only thing that might hold them back is the physical side of the game, but they are available. Rinaudo made a lot of sacrifices to get back before we thought he would and he is full of confidence. He has put the injury behind him now and just his character and the way he plays is a huge help inside the group. Ricky is one of three forwards that we have available, but what he needs now is playing time to get match fit again. Ribas didn’t play last game and Diego Rubio is in good form.”

Speaking about the injury that is keeping Jeffrén out of action, Domingos noted: “As a coach I have to respect what the players tell me. If a player was rested last game but then complains of a problem then we have to accept that. He is working hard to recover now, but we can’t push him to hard or it could make the situation worse.”

As for Saturday night’s opponents, Gil Vicente certainly attracted the praise of the Alvalade boss: “They are a brave team who are looking confident, but I expect my team to be better than it was last year. We intend to win and the three lads that we have coming back into the squad all bring extra quality that can help get the three points. We know full well what we need to do to get a good result. First we need to focus on winning and then we will see what happens in the other game in the group. We have to focus on our task, which is taking on a team that is confident after their last result (a win against Porto). Last time we played Gil Vicente we scored a lot of goals, but it will be difficult to repeat that. We will try our best and see what happens.”

Waving away the chance the chance to talk about the transfer of Yannick Djaló to Benfica, noting that he had “nothing to say on the subject”, the coach also highlighted as what he sees as the importance of the League Cup: “We are in this cup to win it. We know that this is seen as the third competition, but, however you look at it, it is a competition that every team would like to win. This is a week in which we will play in three different competitions, with us playing in the League Cup on Saturday, then in the Portuguese Cup in mid-week and in the League next Saturday. This is such an important week and we have to do our best on all fronts.”

Asked if the win against Beira-Mar has given his team an injection of confidence, Domingos said that the group “is doing good things and has done a lot to get back on track. We had a series of complicated draws, with a loss in the middle of that, so of course it was good to win again and hopefully we can build on that. Tomorrow we want to play better and, more than anything else, to win. The team is obviously more confident that it was before the game with Beira-Mar.”

Text: Jorge Vicente