Farioli Leads Porto to Champions League vs Man City — SkimNews
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- Francesco Farioli, 37, prepares for his first Champions League match as a manager when Porto host Manchester City at the Estadio do Dragao on Tuesday.
- Porto under Farioli won the Portuguese league title last season and followed it with the Portuguese Super Cup last month, with the club also starting this season with five wins from five and only one league goal conceded.
- Farioli turned down reported interest from Chelsea, Liverpool and Rangers to renew his contract, telling BBC Sport he could not be in a better place after meeting president Andre Villas-Boas in Como and finding the club's vision aligned with his own.
- Farioli's path ran from non-league goalkeeper and Wyscout coaching blogger to Roberto de Zerbi's backroom staff at Benevento in 2017 and Sassuolo, then head-coaching roles at Fatih Karagumruk, Alanyaspor, Nice and Ajax.
- Ajax under Farioli missed the Eredivisie title on the final day after a turbulent January window in which he felt the club had failed to strengthen sufficiently — a disappointment that followed his rescue of a side briefly in a relegation battle the season before his arrival.
- Farioli's teams at Nice, Ajax and Porto have produced the best domestic defensive record in each league, built on possession, structure and aggressive pressing that win the ball centrally rather than only forcing long balls.
- Farioli credited Roberto de Zerbi's influence for Porto's narrow-on-the-ball shape and said he gave his players an anonymous questionnaire about his tactics so the squad could contribute suggestions.
- Farioli framed his philosophy around the interplay of attack and defence: "I believe that football, and life in general, is made by two principles: entropy, meaning chaos, and negative entropy, the intention to bring order."
Why it matters: A first Champions League tie against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City is the sternest possible test of the pressing identity Farioli has rebuilt at three clubs in three leagues; Porto's five-wins-from-five start and one-goal concession rate will be measured against a City side built on the same possession principles Farioli once learned under De Zerbi.
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