FC Porto back Francisco Moura to bounce back strongly | OneFootball

Following the episode with Zaidu in the Europa League—which left him out of the options for the match against Utrecht after being announced as a starter—Francisco Moura is expected to regain his place in Francesco Farioli’s starting eleven in Famalicão, the city where he played for just over two seasons before joining FC Porto. According to Record, the left-back will take to the field motivated, after once again seeing his much-desired first call-up to the National Team postponed.

The context seemed favorable, given the injuries to Nuno Mendes and Nuno Tavares, but Roberto Martínez chose not to call up any natural left-backs, explaining that there wouldn’t be enough time to integrate new players into the core of the squad. Interestingly, it was in this same call-up that Carlos Forbs received his first invitation.

Francisco Moura understood the reasoning, but according to information gathered by our newspaper, he was disappointed. An understandable reaction, especially since, before the Club World Cup, he stated in an interview with Betano Mag: “I’ve been doing my job. [A call-up to the National Team] would be a great honor. I know and feel that it could be getting closer.”

The Porto football structure did not let the player get discouraged and sought to comfort him after his absence from Martínez’s call-up, now hoping for a strong response on the pitch.

Meanwhile, his direct competitor at FC Porto, Zaidu, was called up by Nigeria for the upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifying matches. With this call-up, there are now 15 FC Porto players included in their respective national teams for the upcoming international fixtures.

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