Jorge Jesus on his side's win in Arouca

Jorge Jesus used Tuesday's League Cup encounter to give a run out to his squad this Tuesday night, in Sporting's 1-0 win over Arouca.

“We can take two positives away from this to be honest. The win and the fact that some young players came on. You can train all you want, but it is matches that give confidence and fitness to get us ready for the league run in. We managed the squad in Portimão and that allowed us to go to Paços de Ferreira and push really hard. We wanted to be in the semi-final of this competition and we did everything we could to do that", said the Sporting coach at the final whistle, adding: "The League Cup is an important competition which I have already won five times.Getting into the final is really nice, but most teams are obviously focused on the league."

To finish, Jorge Jesus also tackled a question on the transfer window: "I am not going to speculate. I said we wanted a defender and our priority was the return of Ruben Semedo. We reached a deal with V. Setúbal and he trained at the Academy today."

Jorge Jesus includes 19 for League Cup showdown

Jorge Jesus has included 19 players in his squad for League Cup Group C matchday 3 against Arouca:

Goalkeepers: Marcelo Boeck and Azbe Jug

Defenders: João Pereira, Ricardo Esgaio, Schelotto, Paulo Oliveira, Ewerton, Domingos Duarte and Marvin

Midfielders: Aquilani e André Martins

Forwards: Carlos Mané, Gelson Martins, Dramé, Daniel Podence, Matheus Pereira, Cristian Ponde, Montero and Tanaka

Arouca-Sporting will get underway at 18h30 on Tuesday, in the Arouca Municipal Stadium.