Portal dos Dragões
·20 Januari 2026
Tiago Silva: Penalty row against FC Porto is a storm in a teacup

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Yahoo sportsPortal dos Dragões
·20 Januari 2026

Much of the country has spent days trying to find a penalty against FC Porto in the match with Vitória SC… but Tiago Silva has no doubts: there is absolutely nothing there.
“This is going to cause a lot of whining, because for the past week there’s been nothing else but a desperate search for a penalty committed by Porto players,” he said, assuring that those insisting on this theory are “forcing” a narrative.
And he added: “But it’s not easy, because in fact the footage… Not this time. Not this time.”
For this Porto supporter, the play is clean and shouldn’t even be up for discussion: “The technical consensus among referees regarding these incidents (…) means that this is not a controversy at all. This is an artificial controversy.”
Tiago Silva puts all this commotion in the context of the competition and the proximity of the derby.
“We’re at a time when a very important match for the Championship is approaching, which is Porto–Sporting,” he explained, suggesting that many were hoping for a Porto slip-up to tighten the standings.
“Many were already counting on the draw to allow the rivals to close the points gap with Porto.”
And he pointed to another reason for the rivals’ irritation: “Since the referee awarded two penalties in favor of Futebol Clube do Porto… there’s an attempt to create a narrative to justify that there’s controversy in this match.”
In his analysis of the play, he completely rejects the idea of a penalty.
“I see a Vitória player deliberately lowering his head and leaning in to try to intercept the ball.”
According to his interpretation, the player fails to intercept and there is only contact – which does not constitute a foul.
“He misses the interception and then ends up slightly rotating his hip, causing contact with the front.”
And he summed up: “The laws of the game do not punish contact. The laws of the game punish infractions.”
In the end, he broke down the episode with a direct conclusion: “There’s no trip here, there’s no push here, there’s no negligent or even reckless action here. It’s normal, accidental contact in football.”
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.









































