Seven wins from seven could give FC Porto the title and a record | OneFootball

FC Porto have reached 72 points with only seven rounds left in the league season. If they win every match until the end of the competition, Francesco Farioli will go down in the history of both the club and the competition as the coach with the most points ever won in a single league campaign, with 93. That mark is not an obsession, but it fits perfectly with the main objective set by the Italian in his debut season with the Dragons: to reclaim the national title, last won in 2021/2022, the most productive season ever in terms of points.

That year, the team led by Sérgio Conceição surpassed the previous benchmark of 88 points — shared by FC Porto in 2017/18, also under Conceição, and Benfica in 2015/16, then coached by Rui Vitória — in a league played over 34 rounds. The final total of 91 points, built on 29 wins, four draws and just one defeat, amounted to an impressive 89.9% of the points available.

Four years later, Francesco Farioli has a real chance to write a new golden chapter in blue-and-white history. The solidity shown throughout the season, with a clearly defined playing identity and the ability to respond in moments of greatest pressure, even in performances that were not always dazzling, has put FC Porto very close to breaking all previous records.

In fact, the current campaign has already gone into the history books thanks to the best first half of a league season ever, with 49 points collected in 17 matches, from 16 wins and just one draw, a clear sign of the consistency and collective efficiency the Italian coach has managed to impose. If they maintain this pace over the final seven rounds, Porto could reach 93 points — a total that would surpass every record of the modern era of Portuguese football.

The challenge, naturally, is not to lose sight of what matters most: winning back the national title, which was lost after the recent dominance shared by Sporting, back-to-back champions, and Benfica, winners in 2022/2023. Even so, a triumph sealed with an all-time points record would be the most symbolic way to affirm the new cycle led by Farioli and Villas-Boas, combining immediate success with a project geared toward the future.

As for points percentage, the Italian will no longer be able to reach the absolute top, due to the two draws against Benfica and Sporting and the defeat in Rio Maior against Casa Pia. Even so, if he wins every game until the end, he will finish with a figure close to 88%, very near the mark achieved by Conceição in 2021/22.

At the top of the list of champions with the best points percentage is Benfica of 1972/73, with 96.7% of the points available. In a championship played over 30 rounds, the Eagles recorded 28 wins and two draws, finishing with 58 points out of a possible 60. That team, managed by Jimmy Hagan, also marked Bento’s debut season after his signing from Barreirense.

FC Porto come right behind in that performance ranking, with two names that almost always appear whenever the subject is records: Miguel Siska, who in 1939/40, in a championship with 10 participants, became champion with just one defeat and 17 wins (94.4%), and André Villas-Boas, who in 2010/11 led the Dragons to the title without a single defeat, with three draws in a 30-team league (93.3%). Vítor Pereira also won a league title unbeaten in 2012/13, reaching a points efficiency of 86.7%, with six draws.

Compared with the same stage last season, Francesco Farioli’s FC Porto have 16 more points, have scored one more goal and conceded 10 fewer. Another relevant detail: by matchday 27 of the previous edition, the Dragons were already nine points behind Sporting and Benfica and level with SC Braga, all on 56 points.

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