José Mourinho has criticised his Benfica players after their 3-1 defeat by Braga in the Portuguese League Cup semi-finals, ordering them to stay at the club's Seixal training base. The manager said the squad would remain there until further notice, with training scheduled for Thursday and the following day.
'The players will sleep in Seixal, and on Thursday there is training, and the day after there will be training,' Mourinho said at his post-match press conference. He added: 'I hope the players sleep as well as I do, which is to say that they don't sleep at all. That's what I wish for them. That they don't sleep and instead think a lot, like I'm going to.'
Benfica president Rui Costa insisted the overnight stay was not a punishment but a precaution already planned. 'It's not a punishment, it's a precaution for the next games,' he told Portuguese media. 'It was already planned that the players would spend the night in Seixal.' The team will now prepare for next week's Portuguese Cup quarter-final against Porto.
Braga took a two-goal lead in the first half through Pau Víctor and Rodrigo Zalazar. Vangelis Pavlidis pulled one back from the penalty spot, but Gustaf Lagerbielke sealed the win before Benfica defender Nicólas Otamendi was sent off in stoppage time. Mourinho described the first half as 'awful, inexplicable' and said: 'Anyone who plays as badly as we did in the first half deserves to lose.'
The defeat leaves Benfica 10 points behind league leaders Porto and with just two wins from six Champions League matches. Mourinho questioned his players' mentality, adding: 'I don't want to believe a Benfica player is nervous about a League Cup semi-final, because then he's not a player for Benfica.'
