Jesus hoping for Lisbon improvement

Posted Friday, April 26, 2013 by Foxsports.com

Benfica coach Jorge Jesus admitted they were second-best against Fenerbahce in the Europa League semi-final first leg but promised a better show in Lisbon next week.

The visitors from Portugal came to Istanbul on the back of a testing game in the Portuguese Primeira Liga over the weekend and were dominated by Fener in the narrow 1-0 defeat.

They registered just two attempts on target and were lucky that Cristian Baroni missed a penalty for the hosts towards the end of the first half.

However, the slender margin of Fener's win does leave hope for the Primeira Liga leaders and Jesus is optimistic that his men will be able to turn around the scoreline next week.

"Everything will be different in Lisbon," he stated in the post-match press conference.

"We had a very tiring match against Sporting Lisbon at the weekend and we did not arrive here completely ready.

"We still have another game so we remain hopeful of going through."

And he stated that his coaching department had not underestimated Fenerbahce's strength and ability.

"Weak teams do not reach semi-finals," he pointed out. "So that Fenerbahce played a good game was not a surprise to us.

"Fenerbahce were much better than us tonight [Thursday] but, like I say, it will be different in Lisbon."

Benfica are likely to complete a domestic double as they are four points clear of Porto with four games remaining in the league and face lowly Vitoria de Guimaras in the Taca de Portugal final.