Sporting CP’s Rui Borges is under massive pressure after a final day cup defeat to second tier Torreense.
In one of the biggest upsets in the history of Portuguese football, the Liga 2 side won their first-ever Taça de Portugal 2-1.
The result leaves Sporting trophyless for the season in a finale they were certain to win.
Weeks before the finale, Sporting president Frederico Varandas rewarded Borges with a new contract, and that decision is now looking questionable.
There was anger at the coach both at the Estádio Nacional do Jamor, and all around the country, and he therefore had to answer for it post-match.
Commenting on scenes of abuse directed at the Sporting players’ families, he said: “I didn’t notice it, but the discontent is natural.
“As long as there’s a minimum of respect… They’re certainly not sadder than we are.
“We really wanted to win, and the fans were tireless once again.
“We have to know how to live with that, with the fans’ discontent towards anyone. As long as there’s no disrespect towards family members…
“I didn’t understand what happened because I was already on the pitch, but it didn’t seem abnormal to me.”
Borges then had his comments put to him that the season would be a success if they won the cup, so is it now a failure?
“It ends up not being positive in the sense that the best way to value everything the group did would be to culminate in achievements,” he responded.
“We didn’t manage it. We were in finals, we didn’t manage to be champions, and we can’t be happy with how the season went.
“We need to understand where we have to improve so that in the future we can be an even stronger Sporting.”
Asked if it was wrong to announce his new contract in the lead up to the game, he disagreed.
“It’s a mark on the group. We really wanted to win and we didn’t,” he said. “Rui Borges or anything else isn’t the issue here.
“We weren’t able to win and, in a team like ours, you have to feel and understand where you can grow in the future so that we don’t end the season without any trophies.
“We don’t like it, the fans don’t like it… It’s natural.”
Analysing the match itself, the 2024/25 league champion said: “We didn’t win because we didn’t deserve it.
“The opponent deserved it. They were efficient, unlike us. We were a very reactive team, not a proactive one.
“We had to anticipate many things, and we generally lacked that ability.
“Suffering at the beginning led to some distrust or mental fatigue regarding what was happening, everything involved in the game.
“We were playing against a lower-division team, but that doesn’t mean anything. It created some mental fatigue.
“We weren’t able to be a Sporting team above our usual level, something we demonstrated throughout almost the entire season.”
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