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Striker Paulinho today highlighted SC Braga’s good expectations and ambition in Europa League football, a test in which he starts this season on Thursday, at the AEK Athens reception.
“The expectations are good, the ambition is also good, but the past does not count, we have a different coach, totally different ideas, we have a good base and we want to have a good group stage,” he said in the previous match with the Greeks , from the first round of group G.
Paulinho said he expected a “strong” opponent who, although “not well known here, has excellent players, with very good technical quality.”
The 27-year-old stressed that “it does not matter to create illusions or goals” before the competition begins and “without winning first on the field.”
The match with the Hellenic team will be the first with an audience in the stands of the Municipal Stadium of Braga (maximum 4,500 spectators, 15% of the capacity) for seven and a half months, because of the covid-19 pandemic, and Paulinho said I hoped that this can also happen internally, because “the audience turns out to be the essence of the game.”
“There are stadiums where the public makes a difference. It can be a good test for Portuguese football and for those responsible for the absence of public in Portugal to realize that, if the fans behave, there can be an audience in the stadium also in championship matches, ”he said.
The team’s top scorer last season, with 25 goals in all competitions, Paulinho has yet to score this season, but he showed calm in that regard.
“I haven’t scored yet, but I think things will happen normally, we are not going to turn it into a drama. This way of playing the team favors me more, with more possession of the ball, we create many goal situations, we have to improve the shot ”, he pointed out.
While waiting for his first internationalization, Paulinho stressed that it is not his job to “question the coach’s choices [Fernando Santos], who has done an extraordinary job, with incredible results ”.
“I will continue to do my job to be a headache and one day be an option,” he said.
Paulinho, who renewed his contract this week until 2025, assured that he will continue “in the same direction, working more and better, wanting to be more and better.”
“The market has already come to an end, but that never took away my concentration, or the desire to work, or to represent this club,” he said.
SC Braga and AEK Atenas will meet from 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, at the Estádio Municipal de Braga, a match that will be refereed by the Frenchman Ruddy Buquet.
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