Francesco Farioli has impressed since taking over at Portuguese giants FC Porto in July 2025. Opta Analyst had the chance to sit down with the Italian coach for an exclusive interview to pick his brains over the rise of the Dragões.
Defending champions FC Porto, fresh off the back of winning their first league title since 2021-22 last season, have kicked off their campaign in scintillating fashion. They’ve won each of their first seven league matches, netting 18 goals and conceding just three.
Under the tutelage of Italian coach Francesco Farioli, the man who has brought the Dragões back to the summit of Portuguese football, Porto, not content to celebrate the glories of the previous campaign, look hungrier and more determined than we’ve seen in a long, long time.
Their flawless start to the campaign has served as a message to the rest of the league that under this bright, enthusiastic coach, Porto are just getting started.
Opta Analyst spoke with Farioli in an exclusive interview to discuss how he has managed to completely rejuvenate Porto, who are gunning to win back-to-back Primeira Liga titles for the first time since a run of three between 2010-11 and 2012-13, the importance of hard work and discipline, dealing with adversity, and aims for the future.
Francesco Farioli during his exclusive interview with Opta AnalystLet’s rewind to the end of the 2024-25 campaign. Porto had just finished third for the second consecutive season, making it the first time they had finished outside the top two of the Primeira Liga in back-to-back campaigns since the mid-1970s, while their points tally of 71 was their lowest in a 34-game season since 2004-05 (62 points).
Three different managers took charge during the season in the form of two permanent coaches; Vítor Bruno and Martín Anselmi, as well as interim boss José Tavares.
This was a club in serious need of rejuvenation, and so they turned to former Nice and Ajax boss, Farioli.
“Since the first moment I spoke with the president [André Villas-Boas], for me, the decision to join the club was clear and now, I can say of course that it was the right decision,” Farioli tells Opta Analyst.
“I believe that we met in a very good moment for both of us. Both myself and the club, we felt the same level of desire, the same level of commitment in changing things and adapting ourselves in order to click, in order to work properly, to rebuild and to revamp the squad and this is what we tried to do.
“Last summer was a really important market, we had to bring in players with a certain mentality that could help us to bring the Porto DNA to the centre of everything that we were doing.”
The club brought in the likes of Borja Sainz from Norwich City to bolster the midfield and attack, players with an appetite who wanted to prove they could excel at the next level in a high-pressure environment and play for supporters that were desperate to taste glory once again.
At the back, Jakub Kiwior from Arsenal, three players who contributed enormously to the team’s fantastic defensive numbers, with Porto’s 18 goals conceded the fewest of any team across Europe’s top 10 leagues last season, while their 21 clean sheets were also the most.
For Farioli though, those statistics are a testament to the whole team, not just the result of the brilliance of goalkeeper
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