With 42 points seven rounds before the end of the championship, the team from the town of Moreira de Cónegos, in the municipality of Guimarães, has as a priority to avoid any "indirect relaxation" in the final games, setting the goal of reaching the point mark recorded in 2018/19, under the command of coach Ivo Vieira, to be worth a sixth place that they want to match in the current season, when they have a five-point advantage over the seventh-placed team, Arouca.

"I have always been a coach who likes to set a goal to guide me. We have to maintain sixth place, which gives us entry to the League Cup next season, and try to reach the maximum score [of Moreirense in the I League], achieved in the season of 'mister' Ivo", he stressed, in the preview of the duel with the 'tricolores', scheduled for Sunday, at 6:00 pm, in Moreira de Cónegos.

The 42-year-old coach also said that Moreirense will try to be the team with the most matches without conceding goals in the I League, currently presenting the second best record, with 13, behind Benfica, which has 14, and stressed that his players deserve applause if they are "consistent until the end", at a time when fifth place, occupied by Vitória de Guimarães, with 53 points, is distant.

"Seeing ourselves in sixth place, we would like to be fighting for fifth place, but we were not capable of that. It is the merit of the opponent [Vitória]. We cannot ask for more. I cannot be frustrated because of that. If they said that we would be in sixth place at the beginning of the championship, no one would believe it", he stressed.

Defeated precisely by Vitória in the previous round (1-0), the 'axadrezada' team usually gives "a good response" after negative results and will try to maintain this trend against Estrela da Amadora, 15th in the table, with 26 points, Rui Borges also pointed out.

"It will be a very competitive game, against a very strong team physically, in set pieces, in the counterattack, intense when they activate the moments of pressure. [Estrela] Made a good addition of players in the 'January market' and seeks to have a balanced game at a collective level", he analyzed.

The 'helmsman' also recalled that the Minhotos won the first leg duel, in Amadora, with a header from André Luís, "a detail to end the game", and that "the point is very difficult and expensive" in duels against teams in the fight for permanence, as is the case of the team coached by Sérgio Vieira.

For Rui Borges, the reception to the 'tricolores' is another opportunity for Moreirense to demonstrate that they are a "team that values the game", with cohesion in defense and initiative in attack, although they are "lacking efficiency in the finishing zones" to a team that has scored four goals in 10 matches for the second round.

Moreirense, sixth in the Portuguese I League, with 42 points, hosts Estrela da Amadora, 15th, with 26, in a match scheduled for Sunday, at 6:00 pm, at the Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas Stadium, in Moreira de Cónegos, in the municipality of Guimarães, with refereeing by Ricardo Baixinho, from the Lisbon association.