FC Porto, from Italian Francesco Farioli, became today the sixth team to start an edition of the Portuguese Football League with 10 wins, beating the Dragon the red lantern Estoril Beach by 4-0.
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31/10/2026
by
Lusa
O FC Porto, from Italian Francesco Farioli, became today the sixth team to start an edition of the Portuguese Football League with 10 wins, beating the Dragon the red lantern Estoril Praia by 4-0.
The ‘dragons’ added the 10th triumph in the first 10 days, made that the ‘blue and white’ club had only succeeded on one occasion, then reaching 13, in the distant 1939/40 season, 86 years ago.
The ‘great’ of Lisbon have also started twice each with at least 10 victories: the Benfica in 1972/73, with a record of 23, and 1982/83, with 11, and Sporting in 1990/91 and, more recently, in 2024/25, in both cases also with 11.
In the second season under the command of Farioli, FC Porto had already beaten at home Alverca (2-0), Arouca (2-0), Moreirense (2-1) and Benfica (3-1) and, in foreign stronghold, surpassed Rio Ave (2-0), Academic Viseu (3-0), Casa Pia (4-1), Maritime (2-1), and Gil Vicente (1-0).
Farioli's set is not yet in the top-5 of the competition, nor is it equal to the club's best record, achieved at the time 1939/40, towards the third national title.
Commanded by the Hungarian Mihaly Siska, the ‘blues and whites’, then champions in title, reached the end of the first 13 rounds with a 100% victorious record, in a series initiated with a relentless 11-0 at the reception to the Victory of Setúbal.
In a championship with only 18 days, FC Porto lost perfection at the 14th round, falling by 4-3 before Sporting, in Lumiar, in a game decided in favor of ‘lions’ thanks to a goal pointed at 90 minutes, by Mourão.
The ‘dragons’ would end this championship with four more victories, for a final record of 17 triumphs and one out, with 76 goals scored and 21 suffered.
This FC Porto record remained a record for the championship for 32 years, until Benfica managed, in 1972/73, to start the competition with no less than 23 consecutive wins, to ensure victory in the race with seven rounds to be played.
The incredible sequence of the English commanders Jimmy Hagan ended on the 24th round, when the ‘guidees’ tied 2-2 with FC Porto, in the Antas, where they led by 1-0 and 2-1, with goals of Nené and Eusébio, but ended up ‘matched’ by Flávio, at 86 minutes.
Benfica would finish the race as undefeated champion, with 28 wins and two draws, which remains the best record ever of a winner of the competition.
This was also the second record of 10 or more wins to open the race, with the third to appear exactly a decade later, again starring Benfica in 1982/83, in the first season under the command of Swedish Sven-Göran Eriksson.
The “incarnates” reached 11 triumphs, before they tied 1-1 in the “pelado” of Alcobaça, guilt of a attempt of Nelito, at 88 minutes, after Néné advance the “guidees” at 40.
In the last four decades, only Sporting managed to start with 10 or more wins to open, the first in 1990/91, led by Brazilian Marinho Peres.
The ‘lions’ – which would lose ‘gas’ and end up in the third place of the championship – won the first 11 fights, yielding only to the 12th journey, when they tied 2-2 in the stronghold of the Sports of Keys, in a game in which they won 2-0 to the interval.
The series ended up because of the attempts in the second part of Filgueira (53 minutes) and Gilberto (71), to cancel those achieved in the first by Ocean (25) and Fernando Gomes (28).
Sporting's record was thus in 11 triumphs, and the 11th was achieved against Sporting Braga, as would happen 34 years later, in 2024/25, now with Ruben Amorim to the ‘leme’.
In what was his 231st game at the command of the ‘lions’ (164 wins, 34 draws and 33 losses, with 510 goals scored and 199 suffered, and five titles), the Portuguese coach commanded Sporting to a 4-2 triumph in Braga, after losing by 2-0.
There were 11 wins in 11 games in the championship, with 39 goals scored, 16 of which were scored by the Swedish Viktor Gyökeres, and five suffered.
Amorim delivered a team in high, but João Pereira, the successor, did not follow, losing the first game in the championship, for the 12th day, in the reception to Santa Clara (0-1).
Now, only two years later, FC Porto is already in 10 wins, and in the next journey, in Guimarães, it can equal in the third place of the ranking Benfica 1982/83 and Sporting 1990/91 and 2024/25, seal the 11th.
– Best starters ever in the I League:
1. Benfica 1972/73 23 wins
2. FC Porto 1939/40 13
3. Benfica 1982/83 11
. Sporting 1990/91 11
. Sporting 2024/25 11
6. FC Porto 2026/27 10 (active register)