“The squad is focused, united and knows it must start winning” | OneFootball

FC Porto, the national under-17 champions, begin the season in Vila do Conde against Rio Ave on Sunday at 11am. Determined to “start from scratch,” Manuel Prata wants the team to “do things well again, keep growing and take it game by game,” always in line with “FC Porto’s identity.” Gonçalo Fontes shares the same ambition and believes this is “a new season and there is a new story to write”: “The past is behind us and we are only thinking about the present. The group is focused, united and will go all in because we know it is important to start the season with a win.”

Manuel Prata

The starting point for 2026/27 “We know what happened last season, but we are starting from scratch. That is how the team approached this year. We know we have to do things well again, grow as a team and think game by game. For now, the goal is to take the three points in the opening round.”

The work done in pre-season “The team showed a great deal of commitment throughout these first few weeks, we became much more collective and understood each other better, which made us more of a team throughout our process, with and without the ball. I therefore believe the team goes into this first match prepared and with the aim of taking the three points.”

Rio Ave’s difficulties “We know this Rio Ave generation very well and we know that playing in Vila do Conde is typically difficult. They are an opponent that relies heavily on attacking transitions and we are expecting a challenging game, but we have the ability to win.”

The ambition to win “Over the last week, we fine-tuned some details in the team’s individual and collective process, making the team better equipped to face any challenge. We look at every challenge as another opportunity to add three more points.”

The Porto DNA “What we were essentially looking for was a team with FC Porto’s identity. That is something that is built over time, and we need to nurture it every week, but we feel that this week we can already see an FC Porto team out on the pitch.”

Gonçalo Fontes

A new chapter “It is a new season and there is a new story for us to write together. The past is behind us and we are only thinking about the present and what we have to do, starting with taking the three points in Vila do Conde.”

Unity within the group “The group is focused, united and will go all in because we know it is important to start the season with a win. We are all in this together, in the same boat, to win this first game.”

The final preparations “It was a week of hard work, in which we were refining what we have been working on so that by the weekend we are fully sharp and ready to win.”

The challenge against Rio Ave “We have already played many times against this Rio Ave generation and we are going all in. We are FC Porto and we go into every game to win. That is what we are going to do again this weekend.”

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