FC Porto: Farioli's milestone at Reboleira… with the title in sight | OneFootball

Still digesting the Taça de Portugal elimination against Sporting, which denied the team the chance to win the double in its very first year in Portugal, Francesco Farioli nevertheless still has more than enough reason to look with optimism at the major objective set by the club at the start of the season.

The Dragons are well placed in the race for the 31st Portuguese league title in their history, but the coach is demanding total focus from his players, praising the commitment they showed in the Taça de Portugal semi-final tie against two-time national champions Sporting. From his remarks after the clássico, it was clear that Francesco Farioli was deeply affected by the elimination, even though the goal conceded in the first leg ended up being enough for the Lions to progress in the competition.

With that now put behind them in midweek, attention is now focused exclusively on the league, beginning with the demanding trip to Estrela da Amadora, where they will face a side under pressure to pick up points to avoid relegation and which, historically, tends to make life difficult for the Dragons, as happened last season, when the tricolours won 2-0.

This will also be a match in which Francesco Farioli reaches a symbolic milestone in charge of the blue and whites: his first 50 official matches on the FC Porto bench. The record is very positive for the Italian coach, who has 36 wins, eight draws and five defeats, as well as 92 goals scored and 29 conceded.

After a difficult season from a sporting standpoint, FC Porto are on the verge of returning to domestic titles under the guidance of a coach who has clearly absorbed a great deal of the culture and history of the club from the Invicta city.

In addition to the Portuguese league campaign, there is also credit due for the run in the Europa League, a competition in which the Dragons were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Nottingham Forest, managed by Vítor Pereira, as well as for a strong showing in the Taça de Portugal.

After Sporting’s home defeat in the Lisbon derby, FC Porto once again opened up a comfortable gap — five points, which in practice amounts to six given their head-to-head advantage over Sporting — to go all out in the four finals they have left until the end of the season: Estrela da Amadora (away), Alverca (home), Aves SAD (away) and Santa Clara (home).

In theory, the visit to Amadora will be the toughest challenge and, if the blue and white side overcome the tricolours, they will practically have the trophy in their hands. Even so, Francesco Farioli has already warned his players about the risk of relaxing and is asking for one final push until the title is mathematically secured.

In a season marked by several injury-related difficulties — first with Nehuén Pérez, then with Luuk de Jong, but above all with the absence of Samu — Francesco Farioli always kept finding solutions to overcome the obstacles that arose in this long marathon that began last August. After an impressive first half of the season, FC Porto slowed slightly at the start of the year, but never truly lost momentum, and the SAD’s shrewd intervention in the January market was also decisive, especially with the arrivals of Thiago Silva, Fofana and Oskar Pietuszewski, players who added quality to the squad and expanded the coach’s options at a time when some players, such as Victor Froholdt, were already showing clear signs of fatigue.

It is in this context, on the eve of his 50th match wearing the Dragons’ colours, that Francesco Farioli prepares for another demanding battle in Reboleira, but the goal is, naturally, to seal the championship…

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