Jorge Jesus: 'I never disrespected Tim Sherwood'

Benfica manager Jorge Jesus has insisted that he did not 'disrespect' Tottenham Hotspur boss Tim Sherwood in his side's 3-1 victory in the Europa League last-16 first leg at White Hart Lane last week.

Sherwood complained that Jesus lacked class when he seemed to direct a three-fingered celebration in the direction of the Spurs bench after Benfica's third goal, but the Portuguese boss said that he was simply celebrating Luisao's second goal of the match.

Ahead of the second leg at the Estadio da Luz tomorrow evening, Jesus has repeated his stance that he did mean to disrespect Spurs, and has said that "it is water under the bridge".

"It happened. We won't run away from the question. It was a spur of the moment thing," Goal.com quotes Jesus as saying.

"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.

"What is important here is that we're not going to start trying to get in more problems. It is water under the bridge."

Jesus has been in charge at Benfica since 2009.