It was a quiet afternoon this Saturday at Estádio do Dragão. Facing Arouca, for matchday four of the championship, FC Porto was vastly superior and won by three goals. After losing two points in the muddy Estádio dos Barreiros, the blue and whites returned home and got three more points, thanks to the accuracy of Matheus Uribe, Mehdi Taremi and Iván Marcano.

Sérgio Conceição reinforced the starting team he had sent in against Marítimo and Marcano was once again the man responsible for the left side of the defence. Aiming at taking advantage of the space given by FC Porto’s backline, the opponent tried to put the ball in the back of the Dragons’ defence, but Diogo Costa kept the goal unbeaten without much effort during the whole match. Before the half an hour mark, following a cross from Otávio that deflected off an opponent, Matheus Uribe opened the scoreboard with a low shot in the heart of the area. Exactly ten minutes later, Luis Díaz sent Taremi forward and the Iranian moved up with the ball until he placed the goal with his left foot. 

As amazing as it may sound, the number of fouls signalled on FC Porto (11) in the first-half was far higher than Arouca’s (2), even though the opponent’s aggressiveness was much higher than the Dragons’. At the start of the second-half, Diaz had the goal on his feet, but the Colombian’s attempt went slightly outside the post. But the third goal would come soon after, shortly after Vítor Ferreira and Pepê replaced Bruno Costa and Toni Martínez: Otávio took a free-kick on the right was perfect thanks to the combination of three central midfielders. Mbemba let the ball pass and Pepe assisted Marcano for the 3-0. The 4-0, by Pepê, was disallowed by Taremi’s offside at the beginning of the game, but the blue and white pressure remained until the end. Luis Díaz and Otávio were replaced by Francisco Conceição and Fábio Vieira, increasing the number of players from FC Porto’s youth squads on the pitch to five (excluding Bruno Costa, who had already been replaced), and there was still time for the debut of Wendell with the Dragon’s crest on his chest. Next there is a stop for international duty before the classic in Alvalade.