Farioli: “It’s an important match” | OneFootball

Francesco Farioli previewed Sunday’s clássico between FC Porto and Benfica, for the seventh round of the league, at the Estádio do Dragão. The Porto coach highlighted the special weight of the match, called for an intense response from the team, and addressed absences, the opponent, refereeing, and the role of the fans. Above all, he made the scale of the showdown clear and assured: “It is an important game.”

At the pre-match press conference, Francesco Farioli focused on what the team can control ahead of one of the most eagerly awaited games of the season. Without treating it as an early verdict on the title race, the coach stressed that a clássico at the Dragão means far more than the points at stake.

Asked about the nature of the match, Farioli rejected the idea that it could be decisive at such an early stage of the season, without downplaying its importance.

“It is an important game. Being so early in the season means it cannot be considered a decisive game, but it is important for the city, for the club, for the fans, and for all of us.”

The coach thus separates emotional urgency from competitive haste. The clássico demands an immediate response, but it does not change the need to stay the course over the season.

The injury report brings two absences for the match against Benfica, both caused by muscle problems felt during the week.

“As for the injury report, we will not have Nehuén Pérez and Seko Fofana, who had muscle problems during the week. Everyone else will be available for the game.”

The absences reduce Farioli’s options, but the coach made it clear that the rest of the squad will be ready to meet the demands of the clássico.

Regarding the opponent, the coach identified some continuity at Benfica, but also the effects of an additional year of work, the transfer market, and the change in the dugout.

“There are some similarities, many players stayed at the club, of course with one more year of experience and some of them at a very high level after the major investment they made in the market and the change of coach, who has already managed to instill his ideas in the team. It will certainly be a challenging game and one that will require a flawless performance from us, with great intensity and desire in front of our fans,” he said. “We have all the conditions to approach this game with the right spirit and with the desire to keep moving forward on our path.”

Farioli’s reading leaves no room for complacency: he recognizes an opponent with clear references, but centers the response on intensity and Porto’s ability to continue on its path.

Going deeper into his analysis of the opposing coach’s work, Farioli pointed to patterns from Marco Silva’s spell at Fulham FC and one particular change in off-the-ball behavior.

“I believe the identity of both teams is very clear. The analysis is not limited to the last few games, but it is important to explore the past of the coach on the other side, and what Marco Silva did at Fulham FC is clear; there are patterns that naturally remain, but also some changes,” he analyzed. “He is more aggressive without the ball, and that is one of the biggest differences between what he did at Fulham FC and what he is doing now at Benfica.”

The clash is presented as an exercise in detailed preparation, in which each side’s identity matters as much as the adjustments the game may impose.

For Farioli, the fans are a force capable of lifting the team in a game where the mathematics of the standings should not dictate concentration.

“Those calculations are mathematics, nothing more. In a head-to-head clash, there is always that double gain when you win: taking the points and the rival getting none, but we should not be focused on that,” he stressed. “We have to show the same attention in every game, but of course a clássico at the Estádio do Dragão is always special, and the fans will give us the fuel we need to run even harder and make an extra effort beyond what is normally required.”

Farioli values the energy from the stands without allowing it to become a distraction. The ambition is to bring the same focus required in any round to the clássico, with the extra strength the Dragão can provide.

Regarding Santiago Gimenez, the coach addressed the national team call-up and asked for restraint around a player who, in his words, has already lived through a summer marked by media noise.

“We have to respect the national team call-ups. There is nothing we can do, and now is not the time to create even more noise,” he explained. “Santiago Gimenez’s summer was already full of noise, with headlines in newspapers and on television, and here we do not want those kinds of front pages, but rather ones about great performances. That is what we have to focus on.”

Farioli added that the club will monitor the player’s situation during his absence.

“We would love to have him here working with us over the next few weeks, but we will stay in constant contact to understand whether he plays or, if he does not play, how he can make the most of the time he will be away from the club so that we can have him back, in three weeks, in better physical condition.”

The priority is unequivocal: take the focus off the noise and place it on the player’s condition and the level he can deliver when he returns.

Refereeing was another topic at the press conference, after the comments made by Farioli the previous week. This time, the coach tried to separate the past from what he expects for the clássico.

“Last week, I was very clear regarding refereeing. I felt like I was in a Netflix series that happened to be airing on Sport TV, but we were not the only ones who felt that,” he said. “It was just a comment I made.”

About Sunday’s match, the coach shifted the discussion toward the need for balanced handling of incidents.

“As for tomorrow’s game and all the noise created by the past, that is in the past and we are focused on tomorrow’s game, always hoping there will be fair and appropriate management of the situations we will witness tomorrow.”

Without extending the controversy, Farioli fixed attention on the pitch and on refereeing that allows the game to run its course fairly.

Regarding Alberto Costa and André Silva, the coach acknowledged the good form of both, although he avoided making any comment on decisions that belong to the national team.

“Whether they deserved the call-up or not, I can only say that they are performing at a very high level, but it is not my job to select the national team, and we would have been very happy if that had happened, but we were also happy for them to stay here working with us, training well, and preparing for what is coming after the international break,” he admitted. “I felt them relaxed, they were happy to be in the preliminary squad, of course they would have loved to be called up, but they are happy to keep working and improving with us.”

The message once again is one of continuity: recognition is valued, but the day-to-day work at the club remains the starting point for the next challenges.

As for Benfica’s tactical setup, Farioli anticipated adjustments that may arise from individual characteristics and from the way the opponent tries to place its players in comfort zones.

“The characteristics of certain players will define their structure and the rotations they will make. Of course they want to make the players as comfortable as possible and, because of that, they should make some adaptations, which will also require some adaptations from our side.”

The coach therefore expects a clássico of move and countermove, in which preparation does not remove the need to react to whatever the game brings.

Finally, Farioli rejected a simplistic reading of the team through possession alone and defended a level of competence that must exist both with and without the ball.

“I have been here at Porto for a year and a half now, and I only remember Manchester City having dominated the ball here. There is a misunderstanding here between giving possession to the opponent and being good and solid without the ball — because our team tries to do the right things with and without the ball — especially since possession does not win games,” he said. “There are moments when we have to have the ball and do what needs to be done, and I believe the team has shown at different moments that it has the ability and clarity to do what we want when we have the ball, but it also knows how to be brave and proactive in the moments when we do not have it.”

“I think we are mostly talking about organization, and that is something that has to be present tomorrow.”

It is in that organization, more than in any isolated statistic, that Farioli places the key to the clássico: knowing how to have the ball, knowing how to suffer without it, and keeping courage when the game demands it.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.