FC Porto go to Estrela da Amadora on Sunday at 18h00 with Francesco Farioli saying the club’s first team wants to give supporters what they deserve as the season reaches its decisive stretch. The coach said the squad is carrying the right spirit and mentality for this phase and is prepared to approach the match in the best way and with the best attitude.
Farioli described Estrela da Amadora as a side looking to collect points, and said the trip will be anything but straightforward. “It is a very important game away from home, historically complicated and difficult, and also against a team that is looking to collect points in this important phase of the season,” he said. The match will be shown on Sport TV1.
The Italian coach placed the contest inside the broader push for a strong finish, saying the team has already shown in 49 matches that effort is not the issue. “When we see a team fight with all this will, double the effort of the opponent and run more than the adversary in 49 jogos, we can clearly say we are on the right path to return FC Porto to the place it belongs,” he said.
That message matters now because Porto are entering the final stretch with the pressure of results and squad management moving together. Farioli said Martim Fernandes will return and called him “a strong option” for Sunday and for the rest of the season. Zaidu, he added, is still only partly back and will be partially with the group on the day. He also repeated that the club’s interests come first: “Ninguém está acima dos interesses do Clube e do que é preciso para ganhar.”
The coach also opened a window onto the mood inside the dressing room and around the club. He said he and his players live inside “uma bolha azul” and only step out “para ver o que diz a família portista,” a line that frames how closely Porto are watching the mood beyond the pitch as they try to keep their season on track.
Farioli had already told reporters after the match with CD Tondela that the team would move step by step, and that approach remains the thread running through this week. He also addressed the wider squad picture, saying Terem Moffi and OGC Nice have a clear desire to part ways and that Porto have an option to buy, while Thiago Silva wants to go to the World Cup and has already played more than 1,000 minutes this season, including in European matches.
For Porto, Sunday is less about rhetoric than follow-through. Farioli has drawn the line plainly: the season’s last phase will be judged by whether the team keeps doing the hard work, keeps the standards high and keeps turning that effort into points.
