New Sporting Lisbon coach Joao Pereira says his team’s hammering of Manchester City relieved pressure ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League visit on Tuesday.
Sporting defeated Manchester City 4-1 under Ruben Amorim, who went to take manager at Manchester United, and climbed to second place in the league, trailing only Liverpool.
The Portuguese have won three and drawn the other of their first four European matches, according to Pereira, and this has given them flexibility ahead of his first Champions League match as manager.
“It takes the pressure off us a bit, because we won, we got three more points, we go into this game with 10 points and, therefore, we have a margin,” Pereira told a news conference Monday.
“We will play our games and in the end we will do the maths.”
Pereira’s side thrashed third-tier Amarante 6-0 in his first game on Friday in the Portuguese Cup.
The coach said he had spoken with predecessor Amorim before the game.
“I spoke to Amorim before (my) debut, he sent me a message wishing me good luck and hoping that I can have a great career,” continued Pereira, 40, who played as a right-back under Amorim as Sporting won the league in 2021.
“I said that if I can do a lot of what he did, it won’t be a bad start.”
Pereira accepted that facing Arsenal would be a vastly different challenge than minnows Amarante.
“With all due respect to Amarante, Arsenal is on another level,” said the coach.
“But I prepared Arsenal in the same way I prepared for the Amarante game, with the same professionalism and the same objective, which is to try to win the game.”
The Portuguese National Association of Football Coaches (ANTF) disputes whether Pereira is qualified to manage Sporting, but he said he was not concerned about the complaint.
“We have little time to train and the little time we have is to think about how to put together a team to face opponents, aspects that we need to improve — that’s where my focus is,” said Pereira.
“Sporting’s legal department is here to answer the rest.”
