Carvalhal wants Sporting de Braga to be humble and irreverent to win at Luz

Sporting de Braga must be humble but also irreverent in order to eliminate Benfica on Wednesday, in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Football Cup , said the Minho team's coach, Carlos Carvalhal, this Tuesday.

It will be the third time that the two teams will face each other this season , with the Minho team winning at the Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon, for the I Liga ( 2-1 ) and the reds getting the better of it in the semi-final of the League Cup ( 3-0 ), but, for Carlos Carvalhal, Wednesday's game “has nothing to do with the other two , it is a Portuguese Cup game, with different characteristics too”.

Benfica loses to Sp. Braga at Luz, suffers second defeat in a row and fails to equal Sporting (1-2)

Sporting de Braga has not lost for a month , has five wins and one draw in the last six games, Benfica has seven wins and one draw in the last eight , which, for the Braga coach, are indicators that both teams are “in a good moment”.

“We have to believe a lot, work hard, run a lot, be humble and be aware that there will be times when we will have to be like a family, very close, very close to each other. At the same time, we have to be irreverent enough to scare Benfica's defense and score goals so that we can go through to the next phase”, said Carvalhal, in the press conference ahead of the quarter-final match, scheduled for Wednesday.

For the coach, “playing in this type of stadium is one of the most difficult games” for Sporting de Braga.

“Above all, our team has to continue doing what it has been doing and, fundamentally, believe that it is possible to get through,” he said.

For the coach, another important point is “maintaining the same humility and feet on the ground” that has contributed to the “excellent journey, especially in 2025, and in the same proportion as humility, some cunning, personality and a lot of ambition”.

In fourth place in the championship, with the same number of points as third-placed FC Porto, and six behind the leading duo, Sporting and Benfica, Carlos Carvalhal refuses to assume any candidacy, but in the Portuguese Cup the ambition is to reach the final and win the competition, having even recalled the conquest of the Cup in 2020/21 by the Arsenalistas in a final against Benfica ( 2-0 ).

Two goals, three red cards and a celebration in Minho: the Portuguese Cup final in 13 images

“We [the coaching staff] have already won a Portuguese Cup [with the club], Sporting de Braga has three and we would like to win the fourth, but to get there, we need to dethrone a very strong opponent, like Benfica, playing at home. [In 2020/21] We eliminated FC Porto in the semi-finals”, he recalled.

The coach praised Benfica — “they improved their squad [in January]” — and his coach: “Bruno Lage has done an excellent job and presented variations from one game to the next”.

Bruma left Braga in January for Benfica and Carvalhal stressed that the Portuguese international, “a very dangerous player”, was already having “his best season ever in terms of assists and goals”.

“But, honestly, we are not worried about one specific player, but about Benfica as a whole. If we were to worry about each player individually, national team players, very high level players, we wouldn’t play, and we want to play”, he noted.

Carlos Carvalhal also revealed that he will keep Horniceck in goal , although he stressed that the usual substitute Tiago Sá “is an excellent goalkeeper”.

Niakaté, Vítor Carvalho, Zalazar and Fran Navarro were left out of the last game due to injury , but only the Spanish striker is available for Wednesday 's game at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, starting at 8:45 pm .