Late Rodrigo Mora goal gives FC Porto 2-1 win against Cvena Zvezda in Europa League | OneFootball

With the Sunday’s Clássico in sight, Francesco Farioli gave some of his best players rest and applied an almost entire revolution to face Crvena Zvezda for the second match of the Europa League. Only Jan Bednarek, Martim Fernandes and Diogo Costa stayed in the starting 11 selected by the Italian coach.

Nevertheless, the Dragons got the job done once again thanks to goals from William Gomes (penalty) and Rodrigo Mora in a 2-1 victory to make it a remarkable nine wins from nine matches in 2025/26. José Ricardo Leite reports from the Estádio do Dragão.

Angel Alárcon made his debut as a starter for the Dragons. And he was crucial in starting the move which ended up with Deniz Gul getting rolled over by Crvena Zvezda defender Franklin Tebo inside the box for an obvious penalty.

William Gomes opens the scoring

William Gomes knows all about scoring this season for FC Porto, and he made no mistake from the spot. Amazing how this absolute wonderkid cost only 9 million euros, with left-back Wendell returning to Brazil’s São Paulo as part of the deal.

Porto showed a lot of intensity, but weren’t playing as cohesively as the fans have got used to since the arrival of Farioli, which was understandable, since eight players changed in the starting lineup.

Crvena Zvezda struggled to get past a well-oiled FC Porto defence: everyone seems to be in the same boat and everyone fighting for the ball as if it is the last one available! The Serbians however, started to get a bit of a foothold midway through the first half, with the Austrian living legend Arnautovic sending in a dangerous header inside the box.

Kostov equalises

The first non-own-goal conceded by Porto this season eventually came in the 33rd minute of their 9th match of the campaign through none other than Kostov, the Serbian wonderkid, projected to be the next Milinkovic-Savic according to the Serbian media outlets.

After that, the match calmed down to an almost training level intensity. The Dragons got a little bit scared to take risks after they conceded the goal and Crvena Zvezda seemed quite happy to go into the locker room all square.

A first half that was quite uneventful, especially for FC Porto, which persuaded Farioli to make two changes during the break. Alberto Costa and Victor “the Machine” Froholdt came on to the pitch in place of Bednarek and Martim Fernandes.

Pablo Rosario found himself in another function inside the FC Porto team. After playing right-back, defensive midfielder and central midfielder, he now played centre-back as well.

Porto turn up the pressure

The substitutions seemed to boost the hosts as they were way more aggressive in their attacking play. William Gomes seemed always unhappy, but kind of in a good way. Fighting, shooting and tackling to exhaustion. He produced danger until he couldn’t do it anymore and ended up getting subbed off for Pêpê. Alárcon came off the pitch as well, not wanting to remember the bitter taste of his first Estádio do Dragão appearance, giving his place back to Borja Sainz.

As the clock ticked down, the Dragões started to feel more and more rattled. They were far superior to Crvena Zvezda who couldn’t produce any danger for the men in blue and white. And the more the Serbians got in the Dragões’ head, the more rattled they got. The Serbians were playing in full defensive mode and parked the bus entirely, relying on the speed of their winger to try and create some sort of danger.

Unorthodox substitution pays off

Farioli made a risky move, taking off Deniz Gul putting on Gabri Veiga, maybe in order to win some of the balls between the lines, but with the “perfect record” on the line, taking off a striker to put on a midfielder is for sure something bold.

But then it happened: a superstar hidden in the shadows shows up to save the day. With three minutes left to go, Victor Froholdt recovered the ball and quickly played it for Gabri Veiga who got fouled.

Altruistic Pêpê lays it on a plate for Mora

Borja saw the opportunity to switch the centre of the play to Pêpê who sprinted into acres of space towards Matheus Magalhães, the former Braga goalkeeper who was keeping goal for Crvena Zvezda.

As he was about to take the shot, he saw Rodrigo Mora there, waiting for the hugs, the cheers, the shouting, the roar of the Dragão. Pêpê passed to him and he scored.

There was nothing Crvena Zvezda could do to invert the situation. FC Porto now have 9 games played and 9 wins with just two goals conceded in 2025/26.

Now, the focus is on the Clássico against Benfica led by “The Special One”. Something tells me that Porto are about to be 10/10.