Tiago Margarido sent Vitória SC to the Estádio da Luz with a simple message ahead of Sunday’s Liga Portugal meeting with Benfica: the team will go to win. The match is set for 18h00 in the 8.ª jornada, and the coach made clear that his side will not travel to Lisbon to settle for anything less.
That stance matters because Vitória SC have not won at the Luz in 17 years, a run that makes the fixture heavier than an ordinary league trip. Margarido also said the break was used to sharpen the final third and improve attacking efficiency, pointing to seven goals in the friendly matches as proof that the work is already showing on the pitch. Victor Andersson scored two of those goals, Camara added two more and Miguel Nogueira got one.
Margarido framed that preparation as more than a morale boost. He said he is absolutely certain the team has already moved past its finishing problems, and that confidence will be tested quickly against a Benfica side he described as one of the strongest in recent years.
There is still no easy read on the contest, because Benfica’s absences do not, in Margarido’s view, create a major opening for Vitória SC. He said that even if the squad is missing players, Benfica remain dangerous and are also motivated to answer their defeat to FC Porto in the previous round. That leaves Vitória SC trying to turn a productive pause into something more valuable: goals that count when the pressure rises and the opponent is at full speed.
The next answer comes on Sunday at the Estádio do SL Benfica, where Vitória SC will find out whether the attacking work from the break can carry into a stadium where the club has not left with a league win in nearly two decades. If Margarido’s confidence is right, this is the match that could make the drought start to feel breakable.
