Marco Silva reacts to Durán's expulsion and points to the referee's report

Marco Silva was very displeased with the expulsion of Jhon Durán already after the departure between Santa Clara and Benfica (1-2), registered on Monday, have finished. At a press conference, the eagle coach revealed that the Colombian advance assured him that he “did nothing” and asked that the images of the events be released without cuts. 

“ About the end of the game, I said in the flash and I'll say it again. You're asking me something that, as you must calculate, it's impossible for me to see when there's about 50 people on the lawn. If you ask me if I saw anything, I didn't see anything. If I told you right now ‘I didn’t see Jhon Durán doing anything’, I was lying to him because it’s impossible. My goal at that moment... I even talked to the Santa Clara players more than we did. I ended up talking a lot more to one or another player who was involved in that issue – not involved in a physical way, but was more nervous – and with a lot more Santa Clara players than ours. We had enough people around that moment. And I was able to take it easy enough, because already having yellow, maybe it would be the right time to give me the second yellow, because at the speed they gave me the first one, maybe they'd give me the same speed as the second one. And I'm glad I didn't, because I wasn't going to do anything either, be in that mess ", started by saying Marco Silva. 

“ In relation to the end of the game, usually when one or the other player speaks, if the players of the banks begin to run, a buzz is created that is sometimes greater than what actually happened. What I can tell you, and I have already said in the flash: I have the absolute assurance of John that he has done absolutely nothing. And I did the invitation to Sport TV... I know you don't have all the pictures. If they did, you'd put them all on for a long time. I made the invitation to Sport TV to put all the pictures, direct, without any interruption in between. And we don't need to come with cell phone footage from the counter to show everything. And if John Durán did anything, I'll be here to penitence myself. The guarantee I have of him is that he did absolutely nothing and ended up seeing a red one, probably because it's Jhon Durán and because he has the fame he has. But being realistic and honest with you, if he did anything, that's not what he told me. And I'll be here at the next press conference to take responsibility for that. Right now, I have to take his word for it, which he did absolutely nothing”, he said, before challenging the Discipline Council to withdraw the red card shown to the player. 

“ In all the images we've seen so far, we see absolutely nothing from Jhon Durán. If he didn't do anything, I sincerely hope that there's some justice in it and that [the red card] is taken away from him, because it's one thing to go red because we saw something... I'd like to know what the referee will write in the report. If Jhon Durán didn't do anything, why did he get red? Just that,” he said. 

Marco Silva was also asked about the yellow card that was targeted by referee Cláudio Pereira and ended up responding in ironic tone

“ Everything I felt, I keep to myself, I keep to myself. I've already mentioned flashing a few questions. The referee thought I probably protested too much or did something he didn't like and gave me a yellow one. Just that,” he said.

On what happened inside the lawn over the 90 minutes, in which Benfica had to operate a reassembled one to leave the Azores with a victory, Marco Silva admitted that the team entered the match badly, but congratulated the players for being able to react in the second part, also highlighting the support of the fans. 

“ Above all, a better second part. Take the opportunity to congratulate the players on three very important points for us, after a difficult first part, where we were not at our level. Congratulations to the fans too. Even at a time and in a difficult first part of our team, the support was constant and had the patience that is important to have in these moments too ", the technician of Benfica shot.