THE FC Porto is in the final four of the League Cup after a complicated game against Académico de Viseu, where Mexican blood was present in Dragão and ended up winning by the smallest margin.
Santiago Giménez delivered the decisive blow to the downfall of Viriatos in the Invicta city, just before half-time, against a completely new system from Francesco Farioli to completely surprise Bruno Pinheiro.
In this way, FC Porto avoids the humiliation of last season in this national competition, where they fell by the wayside in this round against Vitória SC, eventual 2025/26 winter champion.
But let’s go to the game notes.
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It wasn’t a game very conducive to great performances, but there is one name that will go down in history on the match sheet. Santiago Giménez ends up deciding the match, even from the penalty spot.
He also had more chances to score again, but he didn’t have the dexterity to take advantage of the opportunities that arose.
Surprise
In a somewhat anticipated return and in a very different system than usual, the truth is that Dominik Prpic He shone in his first appearance in official games for FC Porto’s main team this season.
Defensively cohesive and even better than his two defensive partners, the Croatia under-21 international did not tremble against Académico de Viseu and appeared in a good position when necessary.
Disillusionment
Despite not being directly responsible for the defeat of Académico de Viseu, the truth is that, after a truly absurd match by Luís Guilherme against Sporting, it was expected that Valery could raise the level to show Bruno Pinheiro that he is in the fight for the starting line-up with the number 31 shirt. However, he ends up being one of the worst on the visitors’ pitch and didn’t add anything offensively.
Coaches
Francesco Farioli
A radical change that continues to produce no bad results, but this time there was an unexpected variant up the Italian’s sleeve. FC Porto ended up playing much of the match with three central defenders, something we had not yet seen from this Porto team under the command of Farioli.
It ended up going well, even if one cannot perceive, once again, the lack of courage to bet on the young Porto team, who are only world and European under-17 champions, as was the case with Mateus Mide, who was even on the bench in this match.
Bruno Pinheiro
He was once again like himself, but was betrayed by poor calendar management on the part of Liga Portugal, just as Sporting had already been on Tuesday night. However, it is clear that Académico de Viseu’s second line can scare any team, but it becomes more difficult to compete without the big stars of the Viseu team.
Arbitration
Sergio Guelho The only mistake he made was not to watch the penalty from another angle on the VAR monitor, as there are some doubts regarding the deflection of the ball off Gambor’s body before it went to the Viseense defender’s arm. Other than that, it was a peaceful night at Estádio do Dragão.
