Blue-and-white wall: FC Porto boast Europe’s meanest defence | OneFootball

“Defense wins championships,” goes the old saying, so often invoked across all kinds of team sports. When applied to the 2025/26 version of FC Porto, which has shown greater-than-usual defensive consistency and seems well placed to challenge for the national title, it is hard to find arguments to the contrary. Francesco Farioli has made solidity one of the hallmarks of this Dragons side, and the numbers – beyond the results themselves – speak for themselves: in 43 matches played this season, the blue-and-white team has conceded only 24 goals. Domestically, no one is better and, beyond the border… neither is anyone else.

Heading into the decisive stage of the European competitions, FC Porto holds the best defensive record among the teams competing in the seven major leagues of the Old Continent (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Portugal), edging Italy’s Como by one goal. And there is another figure that reinforces the Dragons’ record: the surprise team of Serie A, coached by Cesc Fàbregas and currently in the UEFA Champions League qualification places, has conceded 25 goals this season. However, they are only involved in domestic competitions – the league and the Coppa Italia – unlike Porto, who are still in the UEFA Europa League and also played one match in the League Cup, where, interestingly enough, they conceded three goals.

If we look only at clubs that are, or were, involved in European competitions, the closest to FC Porto is Arsenal, with… 34 goals conceded. Another team that, incidentally, has also made defensive play a priority. Further back are AC Milan (26), Famalicão (27), Lens (29), Gil Vicente (30) and Lazio (31), all of them sharing the fact that they do not take part in continental competitions. There is every reason to say that, in FC Porto’s case, what they are doing is quite an achievement!

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