FC Porto tied with FC Famalicão on matchday 28 of the Portuguese League (2-2) and Francesco Farioli acknowledged that this “wasn’t the best game”: “The performance was below our usual standard. It’s a shame we didn’t get the result we wanted at home”. After “paying the price” for a performance that “didn’t live up to expectations”, it’s time to “turn the page”, not least because “the Europa League quarter-finals kick off in five days’ time” and “there’s no time to dwell on this match any longer”. “When I arrived here, I was told I’d have to fight against everything and everyone. The message is clear: we must redouble our efforts to achieve what we want and deserve,” concluded the Italian coach in the aftermath of the match. 

Turning the page
“The performance fell short of our usual standard, even though we were ahead in the closing stages of the game. It’s a shame we didn’t get the result we wanted at home. It wasn’t our best game, but we can’t dwell on this. I must thank the fans, who stood by us and supported us for 100 minutes. Now we have to turn the page; in five days’ time we’ll be playing the Europa League quarter-finals and we don’t have time to dwell on this match any longer.”

Impact of the international break
“The players spent 15 days away, doing different things and dealing with other demands, and it’s not easy to be back at full strength just two days after travelling over a thousand kilometres. It’s not an excuse, it’s a fact. Today we didn’t live up to expectations, and against an opponent like FC Famalicão, who are having a great season, we can’t afford to waste time as we did.”

FC Famalicão
“They took a similar approach to the Cup match, but today we were slow to get going. We have to be at our best every day and be physically and energetically strong, but today we fell short in that regard and paid the price.”

Lack of a number 10
“Seko Fofana and Victor Froholdt performed well. Seko made a good contribution and, apart from the goal, had other good moments too. That’s part of football. We can’t always be at our best. In this case it was a ban; sometimes it’s injuries, it’s all part of the game. We have enough quality to get a different result, but we didn’t put everything we should have onto the pitch.”

The state of refereeing
“It was very important to win. We didn’t play our best game. We’ve already had time to reflect on it. It’s very painful to keep commenting on the same things, but today’s situation is also clear. It’s a recurring problem. I think Deniz Gül’s challenge was a clear penalty. This area we usually describe as a grey zone is becoming green with every passing day. I don’t think Portuguese football deserved the embarrassment it’s facing in the international press, but things are as they are. When I arrived here, I was told I’d have to fight against everything and everyone. The message is clear. We have to redouble our efforts to achieve what we want and deserve.”

Rodrigo Mora
“He felt pain in his other leg. We’ll have to see. It’ll be difficult to recover, but we’ll have to check tomorrow.”

What went wrong?
“It could have been several things. It might have been physical, psychological, I don’t know. We didn’t put in the performance we wanted. The most important thing was for everyone to be united and connected, but today’s performance wasn’t up to the standard we wanted, unfortunately.”

Unusual incidents
“It’s only natural that Seko Fofana’s goal was celebrated so enthusiastically… The same things keep happening over and over again. We’re not talking about a single incident, but several – we could almost make a Netflix series out of everything that’s been going on. It all depends on interpretation. This area should be a grey area, but it’s changing colour. We’d already seen what happened yesterday, and today we saw what happened. When I opened Twitter this morning, the international press was talking about nothing else. The headlines were clear. This situation is already being discussed outside Portugal and is getting worse with every passing day. If we think of three incidents – Gabri Veiga’s challenge in Braga, last night’s incident and today’s incident – we have three different criteria. Yesterday, not even the best Twitter account was able to keep up with the match’s developments. Things are as they are. Today we didn’t deserve the win, because we weren’t up to the standard.”

Focus on the Europa League
“It’s a long marathon. There are times when we gain an advantage, others when we let it slip away. That was the case today. We have to turn the page, because on Thursday we have an important match against Nottingham Forest and we have to be at our best.”

The incident between Zaidu and Gustavo Sá
“I don’t have that incident in mind. I need to review the footage and we’ll talk about it at the next press conference.”

Inconsistent criteria
“If Gabri Veiga’s challenge in Braga is a penalty, then both yesterday’s and today’s are too. The scope for interpretation is shifting. There are times when a push is enough, and the following week it isn’t. The problem is the direction this is taking. The grey area has been green since the start of the season.”

Time management
“When Diogo kicked the ball, there were just a few seconds left of the 98 minutes. There are moments when we have to be smart and protect the ball with more energy. We should have done that, but we didn’t. After Fofana’s goal, we had a counter-attack to seal the game and we didn’t manage it well. These are small details that can be crucial. The past is the past and we can’t change it; we can only learn from it, and we want to learn quickly, because there are moments that can be decisive and determine our final result.”

Our own fault
“This is the fourth time we’ve played against FC Famalicão, as, apart from the three official matches, we’d already faced them in pre-season, so we know this team well, but today they adapted. Today’s result was our own fault, because we weren’t up to standard; we lacked the pace, the effectiveness, the aggression and the positioning needed to build our play. We were passive, and that led to a performance that was below par. We didn’t deserve to win, because we didn’t put in a good display. Even so, it’s always good to get the result, even when we don’t deserve it. The conditions were there, but we didn’t manage them as we should have.”