Benfica are working to “elevate” Portuguese women's football, coach Filipa Patao said, shrugging off the fact that no other team has managed to become national champions in the past four seasons.
“I, on the contrary, [outras] People, I don't think that a club's dominance is a bad indicator of development. Sometimes it's the idea that gives, right? And it seems that others can't keep up. “But that's not reality, because Benfica had to work a lot and better to remain champions,” the coach said in an interview with Lusa in Seixal.
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In this sense, he commented: “If we did not have a Benfica as good as this, the club might not have this dominance,” but the women's league would be at a level “below.”
So, other clubs have tried and “managed to keep up”, because “every year” it forces the Reds to be “much better” to keep winning and “that's a good sign”.
“In other words, we are working to improve things,” concluded the coach, who was nominated last week for the award for the best women’s football coach at international level, which will be awarded at the Ballon d’Or ceremony, on October 28.
Furthermore, last season's Women's League was played until the final day and was decided by a stoppage-time penalty in the Reds' match with Racing Power (2-1), while Sporting Lisbon beat Damianse (1-0). Leaving two points behind the four-time champions.
However, the coach pointed out that “all competitions have a story” and that story is that “Benfica was a few points ahead and ended up playing complicated matches at complicated times.”
As with Damiansi, for example, when he was “playing in the stadium [relvado] Artificial between two matches with Lyon, in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, a competition in which many players are participating “for the first time”.
“But the tournament was undoubtedly more competitive, we couldn't say no, and that forced us to fight until the end,” said the coach.
This year, in addition to Sporting and Racing Power, who “have had an excellent tournament,” there are also “Damaense and Torreense who are showing that they are doing very well” and who “will probably be the ‘exciting teams’ in the women’s league.”
“This makes me very happy. The more teams that force us to stay until the last team to compete, it is a sign of competitiveness and growth,” praised the coach.
In this sense, the coach also praised the importance of the arrival of FC Porto Women, which made its debut this season in the third division, like “all the teams that wanted to invest in women's football”.
“Porto is welcome, all teams are welcome. I know the teams in our main men's section that don't have women's football, and they are invited from now on to have it,” he challenged.
In this sense, when asked about the lack of conditions that some clubs have in the media after complaints from other teams, Filipa Batão stressed that this is a “cultural problem” and not exclusive to women's football.
Benfica coach confirms that there is a “lack of infrastructure.” [desportivas] In Portugal” and that there are “many teams from the second division to the first division” for men “that do not have the best conditions”.
“So this is a cultural problem in the countries where the union [Portuguesa de Futebol] “We have to look, the clubs have to look, all the entities have to look and improve the infrastructure conditions in our country, that's the point! It's not a women's problem, it's a football problem.”
Appointed in December 2020 to succeed Luis Andrade, Filippa Patão has won four championships, one Portuguese Cup, two Super Cups and four League Cups as Benfica coach, but he has managed to win all four national competitions at once for the first time in 2023/24.
The Eagles finished the Women's League in first place with 56 points, two points ahead of Sporting, who defeated them in the Super Cup (3-0 on penalties, after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time) in Aveiro, and the League Cup (1-0), in Lisbon, in a season that ended with a victory in the Portuguese Cup against Racing Power (4-1), at the Nacional Stadium in Oeiras.
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