VWe live in dangerous times, in which we cannot even believe what our eyes tell us (and this doesn’t even have to do with Artificial Intelligence). An image of Our Lady of Fátima on the floor here, a tube in the nose there, a glancing shot there… Everything can be true, everything can be staged and everything makes us doubt what is presented to us.
Just this week, we came across a report of a “bomb” at Olival, in a Dantesque scenario of “blood” and “death” presented by Francesco Farioli, all because there are those who dare to question what led FC Porto to end the third round of the Champions League league phase with three defeats in three games, with six goals conceded and only three scored.
FC Porto has accustomed us to making the Champions League its natural habitat, something that not even the absence of the last two editions has changed. Yes, Manchester City is a fearsome opponent, who would beat any Portuguese team in the overwhelming majority of opportunities they get, but is it so unreasonable to expect Real Betis and PSV to be opponents within their reach?
They weren’t, and it happens. The Champions League is a relentless competition, which does not forgive the slightest mistake. The problem is not so much with the results themselves, but with the way FC Porto lost. And it is accentuated by the satisfaction with which Francesco Farioli watched, precisely, the way the team played, especially in the last two games.
The approach was bad, but trying to make believe that it was good and still justifying it, for example, with the inexperience of players like Jan Bednarek (who made his debut, it’s true… but at 30 years of age, after almost a decade of Premier League under his belt) is, to say the least, caricatured. Making us believe that doubting this vision is a mere cabal against FC Porto only makes it even more bizarre.
Failing is normal, especially in the Champions League. Ruben Amorim, for example, made his debut in this competition at the age of 36 (one less than Francesco Farioli) and saw ‘his’ Sporting being humiliated by Ajax, at the José Alvalade Stadium, by 1-5. At the time, with another type of speech, he ‘swallowed the frog’, learned and everything that happened is history.
Francesco Farioli, however, is not on the same wavelength as the now AC Milan coach. The speech he adopted since arriving in Portugal has not changed one millimeter. Anyone who questions what he does is because he is looking for a way to attack FC Porto, and that is a worrying stance for a coach who, at his age, will still learn a lot throughout his career.
Either Francesco Farioli really believes that this was a way for a team like FC Porto to present themselves, against Real Betis and PSV, or this is all just another act. “If others can, why can’t he?” he will ask. Because football is not politics. Football is what many of us use to get rid of politics, not to watch dubious ‘remakes’.
