Jesus unconcerned by Sherwood spat

Benfica coach Jorge Jesus insists he has moved on from his touchline spat with Tottenham’s Tim Sherwood as they prepare to renew rivalries.

Jesus’ side eased to a 3-1 win in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League last-16 tie at White Hart Lane last week, a goal from Rodrigo and a double from Luisao giving the Portuguese club a healthy advantage.

However, Benfica’s performance was somewhat marred by the dispute between Jesus and his counterpart Sherwood. The incident came to a head when Jesus directed a three-finger gesture at Sherwood shortly after the Lisbon club had scored their third goal.

The two coaches did not shake hands at the end of that contest, but Jesus is adamant that the matter has been forgotten heading into Thursday’s second leg.

“It happened,” Jesus said. “We won’t run away from the question. It was a spur of the moment thing. I know what I felt but I want to keep it to myself. I never disrespected the coach. We’re not going to get into more quarrels.

“But it is normal as the benches were close together. The coaches in England have similar problems. For the Portuguese coaches it is not normal to have those kinds of discussions or fight because the benches are very far apart.

“There are coaches in England like (Alex) Ferguson and Roberto Mancini and (Manuel) Pellegrini who have already been involved in that kind of confusion on the bench before.

“I didn’t make any gesture to Tim Sherwood when I showed my three fingers. I only said that I was winning 3-1. But the most important thing for me was the quality of our play.

“What is important here is that we’re not going to start trying to get in more problems, it is water under the bridge.

“We had a good game in London and we want to do another one here (in Lisbon).”