Sporting CP v FC Porto (Taça de Portugal Semi Final 1st leg)

Sporting CP v FC Porto 

Tuesday March 3rd, 2026

Taça de Portugal Semis final first leg

Estádio José Alvalade 

The warm up 

“When plan A doesn't work you need a better plan A.” 

Those the words of the then Nice coach Francesco Farioli in March of 2024 prior to a Ligue 1 match with Toulouse. 

As the coach of Nice, Farioli had built upon the defensive work of the previous mister Christophe Galtier whose side had finished the previous season with the joint best defensive record in Ligue 1 along with the French Champions PSG. A month earlier Nice were sat in second place and whilst they weren't exactly challenging to win the French title, they were in with a decent shout of claiming a Champions League place for the following season. But then - then the wheels started to come off. Even in March Nice still laid claim to the best defensive record in France and only Bayer Leverkusen and Internazionale could boast a better record in Europe's top five leagues. Whilst they may have boasted the best defensive record in Ligue 1, at that juncture only Metz and Clermont Foot had scored fewer goals than the Italians side. They'd won 8 times by a single goal margin. Now they'd lost 3 of the last 5 games by a 1 goal margin. 

Farioli at this moment in time is described by one journalist at as a puppeteer of a limited system highly predicated on defence. Did he have a better plan A for Toulouse? No, they lost the game 2-1 and Farioli refused to acknowledge they were in “crisis,” but did acknowledge his side needed to “wake up.”

Between February 11th and March 16th, Nice would lose to Monaco, Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier and then PSG in the Coupe de France. A 0-0 draw at home to strugglers Clermont Foot the only game in which they avoided defeat. They subsequently won 4 and drew 3 of the last 9 but by that time the damage was done and Nice finished the season in fifth, six points off a Champions League place. In the end they maintained their record as having the best defence in France but you don't get a trophy for that and Farioli’s side scored the sixth lowest total of goals in the division. Farioli said au revoir to Ligue 1 after just one season deciding it wasn't that nice in Nice afterall and packed his bags for the Nederland's with Ajax Amsterdam with the blessing of his previous employers apparently satisfied with qualification into the Europa League. Whether the fans and players of Nice felt the same is another question?

Playing the role of puppeteer with your foundations built on defence at Nice is one thing. Would the Italian try the same in the Eredivisie with Ajax? De Godenzoden (Sons of the God's)? Ajax that gave the world Johan Cruyff and along with the Dutch national team in the 1970s were the main proponents of what would become known as ‘total football.’ The only thing really going in the Italians favour was that since the 2021/22 season when they were crowned Champions, their form had dropped off a cliff. When only finishing third in the following season it would have been considered sacrosanct for the Dutch masters. Finishing fifth in 2022/23 and hiring a coach from outside the Ajax system and one renowned for defensive football will have been like taking a massive dump in your own bed and the ultimate betrayal of a club's philosophy. Ajax, home of the 4-3-3 and promoting coaches from within hiring the Italian defensive puppeteer, what could possibly go wrong? 

Ajax finished 35 points off champions PSV the season before the Italians arrival. After they lost 5-2 to PSV on October 29th the Amsterdam side were bottom of the table in 18th. After 8 matches they were still only 17th. That they eventually climbed to finish 5th and secure a place in Europe should be considered a minor miracle but this is the Nederland's richest and most successful top flight side. It is also the Dutch league. I don't think anyone really considered that there was a threat of them being relegated. But maybe it was time to try something different and maybe Farioli could be that mister? 

It may be worth noting at this juncture how Farioli, who turns 37 in April, got his start in football. He never played the game professionally and was originally studying philosophy at the University of Florence before later transitioning to sports science at the same educational facility. His coaching career began with lowly Margine Coperta in Italy where he held the position of goalkeeping coach from 2009 to 2011. He would then hold the same role with Fortis Juventus and Lucchese in Italy before moving to Qatar to coach the U16s national teams keepers and it was here where he met Roberto de Zerbi. When de Zerbi took over at Benevento in the 2017/18 season he took Farioli with him and again at Sassuolo between 2018 and 2020. 

In 2020/21 he joined Alanyaspor as assistant manager before being appointed on March 21st, 2021 at the age of just 31 as head coach of Fatih Karagümrük. His tenure ended on December 31st, 2021 when he returned back to Alanyaspor to take up the role of head coach. In the following season he was in charge for the first 22 games in which they recorded 6 wins, 7 draws and 9 losses and he departed under his own steam on February 27th, 2023. 

Appointed Nice manager on a two year contract on June 30th, 2023 he would gain his UEFA Pro licence three months later and as we already know left after just 12 months noting Ajax paid a fee of €1m in compensation and employed him on a three year contract. His appointment marked the first time since the 1997/98 season that the Dutch side had appointed a foreign coach. 

How far could the Italian coach take a side labelled by many Dutch football experts as one of their worst squads in the clubs history? For the mister himself, could he avoid a repeat of the collapse of his Nice side in France and importantly put into place the foundations for possible success in seasons 2 and 3 of his contract, after all PSV were once more heavy favourites to retain their title? 

Incredibly Ajax were top of the table come the March of 2025 and not only that, were nine points above PSV, the side lest we forget who they finished 35 points behind the previous season. Once again the Italians coaching methods were predicated on a solid defensive base. Any grumblings from the club's fan base about the departure from the club's footballing DNA would surely be forgotten once they had regained their perceived rightful place as the Nederland's top club and won the title. It must be noted that they were at this junction helped by the fact that PSV were having an off season in comparison to the 2023/24 campaign in which they lost only once, scored 111 goals, conceded 21 giving them a goal difference of plus 90. Ajax by comparison had drawn 11, lost 8 and conceded 61 times. It was an incredible turn around in fortunes for the two sides and unlike 13 months earlier where his Nice sides form had dropped off a cliff, Farioli was en route to picking up his first ever title as a coach. That is until the point he wasn't. 

March 30th and it was a 2-0 win over second placed PSV that left them 9 points clear with one hand firmly on the title. PSV captain Luuk de Jong, latterly of FC Porto, conceded that with seven games of the season remaining their focus was on securing second place. “Nine points is too much. I don't think it's ever been made up with so few games left.”

By the time PSV completed a routine 4-1 win over Heracles a month and a half later, a 98th minute equaliser by ten men FC Groningen against Ajax had seen those 9 points vanish and remarkably PSV now found themselves a point ahead and top of the table. Ajax would need Sparta Rotterdam to win on the last day of the season to stand any chance of now winning the title. But let's rewind back a month first and note that at this juncture six points from their remaining five final fixtures would be enough to win them the title. 

April started well enough with a 3-1 home win against NAC Breda followed up with a 2-1 away win at Willem II. Then the wheels started to come off in spectacular fashion. FC Utrecht hammered Farioli's side 4-0. An Ajax side that until that result had conceded just 21 times all season. That was followed by two more dropped points following a 1-1 draw at home to Sparta Rotterdam. A 3-0 defeat at home to NEC Nijmegen followed by throwing away the 2-1 lead away to Groningen deep into additional time. And so whilst Ajax signed off their season with a 2-0 win against FC Twente, PSVs 3-1 win over Sparta Rotterdam saw them crowned Champions and a Farioli side had bottled it for the second successive campaign. What made the 9 point capitulation even more unbelievable was the fact that PSV had themselves thrown away a 9 point lead in December to Ajax. Yes you read that right, Ajax made up the nine points, gained nine points and threw them all away. And you thought the Portuguese top flight was bat shit crazy last season. 

The Italian left the pitch after the season finale in tears and then left the club altogether. On May 19th the Italian gave an interview to ESPN in which he's quoted as saying on his departure “It’s not what I want, but I think it's necessary for the club.” He went on to add “It was difficult to change everything at once, so I thought it was better to change one thing. And that was me.” He further added “The management and I have the same goals for the future of Ajax, but we have different visions and timeframes about the way we should work and operate to achieve those goals,” and with that the most unlikely marriage of mister and club ended as most suspected it probably would - in divorce. They finished once more with the league's best defensive record conceding just 32 times. Their record of 67 scored was 36 goals behind that of title winning PSVs 103. Again you don't win a trophy for having the best defence. 

Rumours were abound that the mister would return home to Italy to take over the reigns of AS Roma but that vacancy was filled by the more experienced head and shoulders of Gasperini who finally departed ways with Atalanta. Instead it was André Villas-Boas who came knocking for his services and he was hired as the FC Porto mister on July 6th, 2025 on an initial two year contract. 

Last month after an impressive start to the campaign, Villas-Boas agreed a contract extension with the Italian until June 30th, 2028. Prior to the game away to Casa Pia on February 2nd, his Porto side had won all games bar the Clássico against Benfica which finished 0-0 and had secured a 2-1 win against Sporting at the José Alvalade. They were seven points clear of the lions in second place and had conceded just 4 times in 20 games. To give the defensive puppeteer his credit, conceding an average of a goal every five games, twenty games into a league campaign in a league you've never coached in with a set of players unknown to you in the main and with no pre-season is frankly fucking obscene. 

What followed was their first defeat and the struggling Lisboa minnows had managed to do what city rivals Sporting and Benfica had both failed to achieve. The lions knew a win at the Dragão would take them to within a point of the leaders and yet it seemed that Porto would extend their lead back to seven points when leading 1-0 going into additional time at the end of the 90 and Sporting were awarded a penalty which Suárez would take with the clock showing 99 minutes. Costa saved a poor effort but could only parry it back to Colombian who slammed it home to salvage an unlikely 1-1 draw. Whilst the four point gap was maintained and more importantly Porto hold the better head to head record should the two sides finish level on points, the cracks have at last started to show on the pitch. Off the pitch they've been showing them since before a ball was even kicked.

The wheels on the Porto bus fall off, off, off.

Off, off, off. 

Off, off, off…

No one can know how this season will finish and who will be crowned Champions. Will Sporting get their three-peat? Will Farioli finally see one of his teams overcome capitulation at the business end of the season? Will Benfica currently sat in third leapfrog both clubs to win an unlikely title? Anything is possible especially given they are yet to play their second games against both Porto and Sporting. What is known is that Porto have had their cages rattled by the lions every single day and we've been treated to a propaganda war that Joseph Goebbels and President Trump would both be proud of. Not a week has gone by without Porto putting out statements to the media about decisions given to Sporting or how the referees are all in the pocket of the lions. You could well believe they employ someone whose sole job is to track what happens on and off the pitch at Sporting. Those are just two examples at the tip of a very large 2025/26 shaped iceberg. 

We've had the Clássico which started the night before with fireworks being set off twice to try and disturb the visiting players' sleep. Clearly their fans don't believe they can win the title on merit on the pitch and are shitting it as much as the club hierarchy are. Having taken a 1-0 lead their ball boys were instructed to remove all the spare balls from the side of the pitch and Rui Silva had his towel stolen. The temperature in the away dressing room was tampered with, Hjulmand had an Atlético Madrid jersey thrown at him, posters of Porto's old triumphs lined the walls of the changing room and above the urinals. As always their players threw themselves to the floor under any contact, all to try to gain those three magical points. Yet karma first decreed that top scorer Aghehowa would go off injured at halftime with an ACL injury that would end his season and then the penalty that saw them drop two points. Even when Suárez was booked for passing the ball back to Bednarek and thus receiving a ban against Famalicão for an accumulation of bookings, karma guided Sporting to a 1-0 win. Before Porto host Rio Ave on Sunday night, the gap went down to one point after Sporting beat Moreirense 3-0 on Saturday night.

Yet Porto weren't done, they put in complaints against Varandas for inciting the home fans when he blew them kisses at them ignoring the fact the president was being subjected to dog's abuse from their fans. Varandas replied something to the effect that his mother taught him love was stronger than hate. Check mate. So they came back with an attack on Rui Borges and called him a liar about his use of tablets on the sidelines to review in game footage. The mister simply replied that he grew up kicking a football until his mother called him home, a son of poor parents who didn't have the money for such luxuries. Two simple replies that make the leadership of the grape crushers look like incompetent bullies. 

Porto are clearly worried enough to try every underhand tactic they can in the book. Everything they have is being thrown at the lions and with the noise off the pitch attracting attention it's no surprise that things on the pitch aren't going too well. Farioli as we've established above knows this is the point in the season where someone starts to cut the strings from the puppeteers grasp and his sides drop to the ground unable to move and all their hopes and dreams are lost. 

OK so that might not happen this season. FC Porto may hold on to win the title but if they do so it will have been in a manner that won't draw any praise from anywhere outside of Porto. They could equally knock the lions out of the Taça de Portugal over two legs and few would then bet against them not going on to beat either AD Fafe or Torreense in the final. Yet Sporting won't give up either title without a fight. If the lions win nothing this season I for will be satisfied that at least we lost with our heads held high and that we haven't had to wage a propaganda war through the media or sink so low as to have to hide spare footballs during a game. It's frankly embarrassing and it will severely tarnish any success that they do go onto achieve. 

At the start of the campaign I posed the question of how playing in the club world cup finals and a lack of pre-season would potentially affect both Porto and Benfica? Well up until the start of the month there were very little signs of it having any affect at all at least in terms of results. They didn't suffer unduly from the loss of Luuk de Jong at the end of November. Yes that same Luuk de Jong who claimed whilst at PSV that they couldn't overturn a 9 point gap to Farioli's Ajax to win the title. How I'd loved to have been a fly on the wall the day Farioli was introduced to his new signing back in August. His only goal of the campaign had come against Sporting in the 2-1 loss and after that game he'd been out injured until November 27th where his comeback lasted all of 3 days with appearances against Nice and Estoril. Maybe Hjulmand should have said a seven point gap was too much to overturn and played mind games with Farioli. 

Kiwior picked up a muscle injury in the Clássico as did Martim Fernandes. Aghehowa I've already mentioned. Now the suspensions are kicking in, quite literally in the case of William Gomes who tried to decapitate one of the Casa Pia players and was given a straight red card which saw him miss the Clássico. Francisco Moura banned for the win against Nacional for his fifth booking of the campaign. So in truth lots of little things adding up and one major thing with the loss of top scorer Aghehowa. We've seen already with Nice and Ajax that it's not their defence that costs Farioli sides, it's ultimately their inability to put the ball in the other net from February onwards that ends up costing them. As I say though, maybe it doesn't this time around. Porto could do the double. Time will tell. But they say in life things come in threes. So will it be the three-peat? Will Farioli see a third side in three seasons snatch defeat from the jaws of success? I think that sentence just about makes sense. Watch this space. 

One question I keep coming back to in my head - is Farioli the Italian Mikel Arteta? Destined always to be the bridesmaid and never the bride as the infamous banner held aloft at Anfield posed the question last season. Of Arteta of course, I'm just adding Farioli given his sides capitulation in the previous two campaigns. Maybe one day someone will do a banner of him too wearing a bridesmaid dress holding a posy of flowers. 

I've long given up watching Premier League football but it's well reported that Arsenal are trained in the dark arts, if you're being polite, but let's call it what it is - shit housery. Players feigning injury and attempting to get opponents booked or sent off. A side built on defence rather than attacking prowess. You'd be better off watching the NFL given it sounds to me like they're a special teams unit and there are so many breaks in play. There's the ubiquitous questioning of referees decisions. Any of this reading familiar with a certain club in Portugal? Now in fairness to Farioli this could well be something engrained into the DNA and fabric of FC Porto and maybe it's something he's taken upon himself to try eradicate. If true however we've seen no signs of it in the two Clássico's under Farioli this season. If Sporting acted in the same manner then I'd have no interest in watching them play. I'm not a subscriber to winning at any costs. I never thought I'd see Sporting win one title let alone three and if it was the case we don't win a third straight title and did so to a team who'd played the better football and not resulted to the tactics they have already done then I'd take it on the chin. As it is even if it's the neighbours that overtake us both to win I'd take anyone winning it over them. Same goes if we lose the semi final over two legs. I can't be the only one that feels like that. If it happens you can guarantee that Villas-Boas will cry foul in the same way that Benfica did and still continue to do since they lost this competition back in May of last year. Clearly Frozen wasn't a big hit in Portugal - let it go. 

So let's revisit how the two sides made it to the semi final, starting with the lions. 

Round 3 started with a hard fought 3-2 win after extra time away to Liga 2 side Paços de Ferreira. Despite being from a league lower they twice took the lead, Gonçalves and Ioaniddis equalising each time to force extra time where an own goal eventually saw the lions qualify. 39 attempts registered over the course of 120 minutes for Sporting. They made lighter work of AC Marinhense at home in round 4 winning 3-0 with a Trincão brace and a goal from Luis Suárez. 

Round 5 and we avoided any further controversy in the Azores as we beat Santa Clara 3-2. Oh no wait my bad. More controversy followed against Santa Clara. Simões gave the lions the lead after 11 minutes. A Silva goal five minutes from time looked to have knocked Sporting out 2-1 after Soares had equalised on 27. Fourteen short minutes for VAR to award a penalty taken by Suárez to make it 2-2 15 minutes into additional time. Technically depending on how you read the goal times, Ioannidis scores the winner before Suárez scores the equaliser with it coming in the 96th minute. As you'd imagine after the corner that never was leading to the winning Hjulmand goal that should never have been in the 2-1 league defeat, the islanders were less than happy. Sporting on the other hand were jubilant and keen to avoid a third game in four going to extra time. 

Round 6 saw the lions welcome bottom side AVS whose only two previous wins all campaign had come in this competition. What could possibly go wrong? Guilherme with a Golazzo scored his first goal as a lion and own goal 3 minutes into the second half seemed to have secured passage into the semi finals. Feet up, job done. Oh no wait the referee has awarded a penalty, AVS have scored a penalty. No need to worry. Ninety minutes are up just don't do anything stupid. Like what? Like concede another penalty. I said don't do anything stupid. Second penalty awarded. Nene equalised to make it 2-2 and we were off to extra time again the game before the Clássico. Yet Porto claim we have the referees in our pockets. Not sure the evidence here backs that one up. With penalties looking all the more likely Geny scored four minutes short of the end of the match and we'd at least avoided those and had booked ourselves a double header against FC Porto. 

As for Porto -

Taça de Portugal Round 3 – Celoricense (A) Porto took advantage of lower league opposition to run up a 4-0 win. Bednarek with the opener and Aghehowa with a hat-trick booking their place in Round 4.

Taça de Portugal Round 4 – Sintrense (H) The draw for the cup kind once more for Porto ahead of their next European tie against lower league opposition. Goals from Sainz, Güi and Mora secured a comfortable 3-0 win and their place in Round 5.

Taca de Portugal Round 5 – Famalicão (H) A 5th minute Gomes goal gave Porto the lead, De Haas equalised 7 minutes later to give the visitors hope. Froholdt made it 2-1 before goals in the last 10 minutes from Aghehowa and Pepe put the tie out of reach as Porto booked their place in the quarter finals with a comfortable 4-1 win.

Taça de Portugal Quarter Final – Benfica (H) Porto booked a place in the semi-finals to face either Sporting or AVS with a 1-0 win. Jan Bednarek with the game's only goal coming after 14 minutes. Each side missed their 1 solitary big chance. XG 0.76 to 1.65.

The last time the two sides met in a cup game was in January of last year when Gyökeres goal on 56 minutes booked their place in the final of the Taça da Liga. That followed the infamous 4-3 loss in the Supertaça where goals from Inácio, Gonçalves and Quenda put Sporting 3-0 up after just 23 minutes. I won't bother with rest, you've just read the final score. The last time the two sides met in this competition was in the May 2024 final where St Juste opened the scoring after 19 minutes and was promptly dismissed 9 minutes later to leave the lions down to ten men. Sandwiched in between that Evanilson had made it 1-1. Despite having to field Diogo Pinto in goal and being down to ten men for more than an hour and a half the lions finally came unstuck and lost 2-1 when Taremi was given a penalty in extra time. Conçeicão who'd been given a red card and sent to the stands still able to give a talk to his players before extra time. Because yes as we know it's Sporting who control the referees. As they say though, some shit you really just couldn't make up. 

We know that the grape crushers have the upper hand in the league and let's be fair none of us even want to sit through another 90 minutes or turgid Farioli bollocks let alone 180 minutes. Last season's second leg against Rio Ave was a hard enough watch but that owed much to the game all but being over after the first leg. I said it last year, I'll say it again, make it a winner takes all tie. We've enough football as it is. I'll stand by that quote even if we lose this game meaning a second leg would give us hope of turning it around. 

In the markets 

Sporting CP TBC

Draw TBC

FC Porto TBC 

As a side note the odds for the Portuguese title are now Porto 1/4, Sporting 10/3 and Benfica 10/1. Braga and the rest 1500/1 or greater.