FC Porto’s defensive wall really was their best attack | OneFootball

FC Porto’s path to winning the title was built on defensive solidity, to the point that Farioli’s team was even labeled pragmatic. One of football’s old maxims says that the best attack is defense, and Porto took that literally: a team that does not concede is always closer to taking all three points, and FC Porto went unbeaten in 21 of the 34 league rounds, a record unmatched across Europe’s major leagues.

The teams that come closest to these numbers are two-time European champion PSG and Olympiacos, both with 18 clean sheets, although the Greeks did not even win their domestic title. The team from Piraeus, it should be noted, was the only one to concede fewer goals than Porto: 17, although it ranks slightly behind on average, since it played only 32 matches, two fewer than the Portuguese champion.

In the 21 league matches in which FC Porto kept a clean sheet, Diogo Costa was always in goal and only in two did he fail to complete the full 90 minutes (Aves SAD and Santa Clara, both at the Dragão). This means he comfortably surpassed his previous record, which was 16 league rounds without conceding a goal.

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