Sara Pereira, FC Porto Women B boss: “A weekend to remember” | OneFootball

In two days of consecration, FC Porto’s women’s football found an almost perfect image for where it stands: the Under-19s crowned national champions of the Second Division and promoted to the top tier, and the B team crowned national champions of the Fourth Division and with promotion to the Third sealed. At the heart of this double achievement was Sara Pereira, coach of both teams, highlighting the wear and tear, the strength of the group, and the ambition of a project that wants to grow with an identity of its own. Amid the celebrations, she left a short and definitive guarantee: “We are here to make history.”

It was a moment of celebration, but also of reflection. Sara Pereira spoke with the calm of someone who had gone through a demanding season right to the end and found, in the outcome, the reward for work divided between two teams, distinct contexts, and one shared idea: in FC Porto women’s football, ambition is not improvised, it is built.

Looking at the season as a whole, the coach focused on the accumulated effort and the collective significance of a weekend that will remain linked to the strong start of Porto’s project in the sport.

“It is the culmination of an exhausting season on every level, both physically and emotionally. It is the reward these athletes all deserve; they worked very hard and sacrificed a lot so that they would not fall short in anything for the Club. This weekend will be memorable for the Club and for each one of them,” she said. “FC Porto started a project in women’s football, knows what it wants and knows where it wants to go. If we all keep working like this, the future will be bright.”

In Sara Pereira’s words, there is more than competitive relief: there is a sense of journey and direction. The triumph comes as an immediate reward, but also as a sign of a structure that, in the coach’s view, already knows what it wants to be.

When asked to explain the basis of the success, the answer was direct. In a year of delicate management and a large squad, the key lay less in individual brilliance than in the ability to keep everyone connected to the same goal.

“The secret is what we have defended from the start: the group. We had a very large group, and managing a group with so many athletes was a huge challenge,” she explained. “To finish the year with the same number of players we started with, to have welcomed players from other levels, and to have had them all celebrating with us this weekend is a source of pride and proof that they trusted our work.”

It is an interpretation that helps explain the tone of the achievement: stability, commitment, and internal trust. In a growing project, the ability to bring everyone together and not lose pieces along the way appears almost like a parallel victory.

On the team’s competitive identity, Sara Pereira insisted on a simple but foundational idea: FC Porto enters to win. And she linked that demand to the atmosphere at home and the support surrounding the team.

“What we tried to get across to our team was that FC Porto goes into every game to win. The fact that we played the first leg at home is a different feeling; Olival feels like home and we had many people supporting us,” she stressed. “The parents were impeccable from start to finish, and the success belongs to everyone.”

The message is clear: the competitive culture does not adjust to the context, it imposes itself on it. At the same time, the coach extends the merit beyond the pitch and portrays an achievement shared between the dressing room, families, and the support structure.

There was also room to measure the players’ growth and thank those who worked behind the scenes. Sara Pereira spoke of human and sporting development, as if one could not exist without the other.

“Our athletes have grown in every way, and today we feel they are more mature women and more complete players. As for the staff, I want to leave them my deepest thanks, because without them it would have been impossible,” she acknowledged. “This was a huge challenge that could only be overcome with everyone’s help.”

That recognition helps complete the picture of a long season in which development was not measured only in titles and promotions. It was also measured in the maturity gained and in the network of work needed to sustain two fronts at the same time.

Managing the B team and the Under-19s required adapting speeches, workloads, and decisions. The coach described that dual role as a constant exercise in adjusting to the demands of each competition.

“They were different contexts and different challenges, but they showed the ability to adapt to the competition they were playing in. For us, the coaching staff, managing them in terms of minutes, physical load, and competition was also a challenge,” she analysed. “Many of them had to play on Saturday and Sunday, and it was good for everyone.”

More than a difficulty, Sara Pereira presented that overlap as a tool for growth. The extra effort turned into learning, and the players’ flexibility ended up reflecting the adaptability of the whole project.

The players who came down from the first team also fit into that balance without any noise. The coach made a point of highlighting the way the group integrated them and the impact they had in the dressing room.

“At no point this week did we feel there was any different feeling. Our group welcomed all the players who came in as if they had been here since day one, and those players also had an incredible attitude,” she assured. “They came to set an example and to pass on what they have already experienced at higher levels.”

The detail reinforces the same underlying idea: cohesion did not break when the context changed. On the contrary, the group seemed to absorb new elements naturally, turning experience into a point of reference.

On the horizon, the coach did not hide the ambition. And she summed up in two short sentences the scale FC Porto intends to give to its presence in women’s football.

“FC Porto did not come to women’s football just to pass through; it came to stay. We are here to make history.”

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