Farioli: “The spirit and desire were there” | OneFootball

FC Porto achieved their ninth victory in nine official matches by defeating Red Star 2-1 in the second round of the Europa League, and coach Francesco Farioli praised "the spirit and desire" of a team that managed "a different scenario than what they are used to" and achieved "another important victory in the last minutes".

"There is still a lot of work ahead, but the result was positive and the team performed well," said the coach focused on "continuing to improve" to face the challenges of a "very demanding Europa League".

Positive performance"The spirit was there. In the first half, before the goal, the game was always controlled with and without the ball against an opponent that plays differently from what we are used to and we managed well. There is still a lot of work ahead, but the result was positive and the team performed well."

The way forward"The action of the second goal gives a good image of what we want to be. We are far from being perfect, but the spirit and desire were there. We had the fantastic contribution of Gabri Veiga and Victor Froholdt and Pepê knew how to carry the ball and pass it to Rodrigo Mora. This is the image that remains."

The aggressiveness of the Serbs"Until their goal the game was under control, but it was complicated to play against an opponent that until the end man-marked all our players except the central defenders. It was a different scenario than what we are used to, it took more time for us to adapt, but I think the game was positive overall. I have good feelings, but I need to review the game for a better understanding."

Mora focused on the attack"At the beginning of the season I had already said that Rodrigo Mora could play in more than one position. When Jan Bednarek started to have some cramps, I felt it was a good opportunity to try Mora as a false 9 and use a little more the runs of Gabri and Victor and then the goal even ended up coming in a different dynamic. I think Rodrigo Mora can cover several options and, besides the goal, he had two or three great moments, especially when he played higher up the field. It was good and the goal rewarded his performance."

European perspectives"We have to qualify first and we still have a long way first. At Ajax I started with three victories and then only managed to qualify in the last game. We have to move forward, of course it's an important result, the second to come in the last minutes of the game. We have to continue to improve because the Europa League is very demanding and we have to be prepared."

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