Francesco Farioli has never managed a Champions League match, and his first is against Manchester City
Porto have won all five league games and conceded once. Manchester City arrive at the Dragao without Pep Guardiola for the first time since 2015-16.
Sep 8, 2026
Francesco Farioli studied philosophy at Florence and started out coaching goalkeepers in the Italian lower divisions. He is 37. On Tuesday night he takes charge of a Champions League match for the first time in his life, and the visitors to the Estádio do Dragão are Manchester City.
For Indian viewers that means a 00:30 IST start in the early hours of Wednesday, one of six games on the opening night of the 2026-27 league phase.
Porto have conceded one goal all season
Farioli took the Porto job in July 2025 and won the league in his first season, sealing it on 2 May. The Portuguese Super Cup followed. He was named manager of the season. None of that is normal for a coach whose previous stops were Fatih Karagümrük, Alanyaspor, Nice and Ajax, and none of it has slowed him down: Porto have won all five of their league games this season, scored 11 and conceded one. They are top on 15 points, two clear of Sporting, and they beat Moreirense 2-1 on Friday.
The squad list for Tuesday is thinner than the form suggests. Jan Bednarek is suspended, carrying over a red card from last season’s Europa League. Victor Froholdt is out with concussion. Vasco Sousa, Oskar Pietuszewski, Gabriel Mec, Zaidu Sanusi and Samu Aghehowa are all unavailable.
City’s first European campaign after Guardiola
Enzo Maresca has not taken charge of Manchester City in this competition before. This is the club’s first Champions League campaign since 2015-16 without Pep Guardiola in the dugout, and the manager who replaced him arrives in Portugal three games into a Premier League season City have won all of.
They laboured past Coventry 1-0 on Saturday, Erling Haaland scoring the only goal. Haaland has played every league minute so far and has three goals from three games. He also sits on 34 Champions League goals in 39 appearances for City, two short of Sergio Agüero’s club record of 36, which is the sort of thing that tends to get settled in a group game in Portugal rather than a semi-final.
Maresca has been unusually direct about what Tuesday is for. Talking about the squad players who have barely featured, he said: “So on Tuesday they’re going to start getting minutes in the Champions League.” On his striker he was blunter still: “But for sure we need to protect Erling because, again, the season is very long.”
Whether that survives contact with a Porto side who have conceded once in five league games is a different question. City also go to Old Trafford on Sunday for Maresca’s first Manchester derby, which is not the sort of fixture a manager wants to reach with a tired forward line.
Porto have never beaten them
Jeremy Doku misses out for City with the calf problem that has kept him out of all three league games. Nico O’Reilly is out with a back injury.
The head-to-head is a short and one-sided document. Four meetings, three City wins, and a goalless draw in December 2020. Porto have never beaten Manchester City in a competitive match. They have also never faced them with a defence that has given up a single goal in five league games, so the record may be less useful than it looks.
For Indian viewers it is a late one, and Porto against City on the opening night is a better use of the small hours than most of what the league phase will throw up between now and January.