Francesco Farioli: “it’s early in the season” | OneFootball

Francesco Farioli previewed the clássico between FC Porto and Benfica with top spot in the league at stake, in a match the coach of the National Champions sees as special, but not decisive. The Italian coach called for focus, organization and a response equal to the demands of the occasion at the Estádio do Dragão, without hiding the importance of the push coming from the stands. Even so, he issued a clear warning: “it’s early in the season”.

After overseeing the final training session of the week at the Jorge Costa CTFD, Francesco Farioli faced a match that always carries more than the three points on offer. The FC Porto coach spoke about the city, the Club and the fans, but sought to channel the emotion of the clássico into one central idea: to stay on course with the clarity of someone who knows the season is still a long one.

Asked about the scale of the clash, Farioli acknowledged the particular weight of hosting their Lisbon rivals, without allowing that burden to turn the match into an early verdict on the standings.

“an important game for the city, for the Club, for the fans and for all of us,” he said. “all the conditions are there to approach this game with the right spirit and with the desire to keep moving forward on our path”.

Between the significance of the moment and the need not to confuse importance with finality, the coach’s message points to an FC Porto side committed to the present, but without losing sight of the road still ahead.

In terms of preparation, the coach will be able to count on Victor Froholdt, Oskar Pietuszewski and Samu for the clash, unlike Nehuén Pérez and Seko Fofana, who are dealing with “muscle problems”. The demands, he anticipated, will be at their highest for the blue and whites.

“a challenging game that will require a flawless performance,” Francesco Farioli predicted.

The wording leaves no room for complacency. In a clássico at the Estádio do Dragão, the margin for error promises to be slim and the collective response will have to match the ambition of the occasion.

Farioli also looked at Marco Silva’s Benfica, a team reshaped in the transfer market while keeping a core group of players in the squad. On the other side will be players such as Clément Lenglet, Alessandro Circati, Gabriel Índio, Souffian El Karouani, João Palhinha, Claudio Echeverri, Jakub Kamiński and Jhon Durán, brought in to make up for several departures.

“There are some similarities, many players stayed at the club, of course with one more year of experience and some of them at a high level,” he analyzed. “the characteristics of certain players will define their structure and the rotation they will use”.

The picture drawn by the Porto coach is of an opponent with continuity and new solutions, already shaped by the ideas of the new manager. Reading Benfica’s dynamics therefore emerges as one of the keys to preparing for a game that will be decided by details.

The Lisbon side come into the clássico after scoring 42 goals in 13 official matches, with Vangelis Pavlidis remaining their main attacking reference point, with 14 goals and three assists. Gianluca Prestianni, Rafa Silva, Leandro Barreiro and Andreas Schjelderup also feature among the players with the biggest influence on Benfica’s attacking numbers, while Samuel Soares, Tomás Araújo, Lenglet, Alexander Bah, Samuel Dahl, Enzo Barrenechea and Georgiy Sudakov are among the most-used players in the campaign.

Against that backdrop, FC Porto will have to balance attention to individual names with a response to the collective. Farioli did not, however, dwell on the logic of a clash that could directly pull a rival away in the table.

“organization” is something that “has to be present,” the coach stressed. “In a head-to-head, there is always that double gain when you win, taking the points and the rival getting none, but we should not be focused on that. We have to show the same attention in every game, but of course a clássico at the Estádio do Dragão is always special and the fans will give us the fuel we need to run even more and make an extra effort beyond what is normally required”.

It is in organization and collective energy that Farioli places Porto’s answer. The advantage of playing at home, he suggests, does not remove the need for discipline: rather, it should amplify the team’s ability to run more and respond better when the clássico tightens.

The refereeing team will be led by Miguel Nogueira, from the Lisbon Football Association, appointed by the Refereeing Council of the Portuguese Football Federation. The 32-year-old referee will have Paulo Brás and Nuno Pires as assistants, Fábio Melo as fourth official and Luís Ferreira on VAR, assisted by João Bessa Silva.

With the main actors set both on and off the pitch, the Estádio do Dragão is preparing for a night in which the league lead will be on the line. For FC Porto, the order is clear: turn the atmosphere of the clássico into intensity, without abandoning the organization that Farioli considers indispensable.

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