This Wednesday, November 5th, FC Porto coach Francesco Farioli praised Utrecht, the Dragons’ opponents in the fourth round of the league phase of the Europa League, highlighting the “interesting footballers” and the “very experienced coach” of the Dutch team.
After the defeat in the last European match against Nottingham Forest (2-0), the ‘blue and whites’ intend to resume the path of triumphs, on Thursday, in a match at Utrecht, a team that has not yet scored or scored any goals in the competition.
Despite the opponent’s false start, the Porto coach does not ‘fly the flag’ and recognizes the value of an opponent he knows well from clashes last season, when he coached Ajax.
“If we look at the league table today, we may have the wrong idea of what this team is. Last season, they competed very well, until the end, and ended up fourth. This year, the structure is the same and they brought very interesting players to the team. They have a lot of quality on the flanks, a top striker [Sébastian Haller] and a coach with a lot of experience. It’s an opponent that will demand a lot from us”he explained, at the pre-match press conference.
The difficult victory against Sporting de Braga last Sunday (2-1), the most physically demanding of the entire season, according to the coach, will not prevent the team from performing at its best, but it could require some type of management.
“We played a great game against Sporting de Braga, the biggest from a physical point of view, with the team running 25 kilometers collectively, it was very demanding. We have to manage some situations, but we want to go with the best eleven. We want the highest number of points and thus guarantee qualification as quickly as possible”assured the Italian coach.
Still regarding the game in the last round of the championship, Farioli spoke about the controversy surrounding the alleged episode of coercion against referee Fábio Veríssimo, subscribing to the thesis defended by the ‘dragons’ in the statement published on Tuesday.
“The team is on another page and in another book, which is the Europa League. Let’s leave that chapter aside for a while. The club’s feeling is very clear, and it’s not just about the game with Sporting de Braga. The club’s statement was exhaustive and I subscribe to all its words. I have every confidence in the president and management to deal with this in the right place and with the right people so that everything can be resolved”he commented.