Farioli Trio drills off to try to get to FC Porto-Napoli

Francesco Farioli presented, this Sunday, the main team of FC Porto with a day off, following the categorical victory won at the reception to Estoril, in play counting for the tenth day of the I Liga, by 4-0. Still, there were those who “ignored” the instructions and made a point of going to the Training and Sports Training Center Jorge Costa, in the Olival.

It was the case of Zaidu Sanusi, William Gomes and Oskar Pietuszewski, which, according to the edition of the newspaper Monday At Bola, they went to the blue and white complex to perform additional work of recovery, in a final attempt to recover in time for the fourth round of the league league of champions.

The clash with Napoli has an initial whistle scheduled for 20h00 (Hour of Continental Portugal) next Wednesday at the Dragon Stadium, and this trio is committed to saying ‘present’. Chris Smalling accompanied them, but in this case he is not enrolled in the biggest competition of European football clubs, so it will always be a ‘letter out of the cards’.

The Nigerian lateral left presented complaints in the left knee, before the canarinhos, which is why he was replaced by João Souza, at the interval, while the extreme Brazilian suffered a grade 2 sprain on the right ankle last October 10, when the victory reached in the trip to the Stadium of Barreiros, on the Maritime, by 1-2.

Both have a chance to receive ‘green light’ for the duel of the millionaire race, with the case of the Polish international being more complicated, which, remember, contracted a muscle injury to the left thigh last weekend, during the warm-up for the visit to Gil Vicente (triumph, 0-1), so he had to give the place to Borja Sainz (who would end up scoring the goal of victory).

Chris Smalling, who is counting on an injury to the internal collateral ligament of the right knee, forced him to leave the field last Wednesday when the national champions in title took the best over the Academic of Viseu, by 1-0 (and stamped the passport for the final four of the League Cup), and should only be fit for the next calendar year of 2027.

David Neres and Alisson Santos do not return to Portugal

However, it is not only Francesco Farioli who has reason to be concerned. On the other side of the ‘barricade’, also Italian Massimiliano Allegri confirmed, on Sunday, after the defeat suffered during the visit to Juventus, by 2-0, that he will not be able to count on David Neres and Alisson Santos for this FC Porto-Napoli.

They are two well-known faces of Portuguese football, since the first was linked to Benfica, between 2022 and 2024, while the second played a shorter role in Sporting, between July 2025 and January 2026. They're both injured and they don't fit into the azzurri accounts.

The same applies to Benoit Badiashile, Leo Spinazzola, Constantine Favasuli and Stanislav Lobotka remain in the care of the clinical department of the current eighth graded Serie A, so they are certain absences at Dragon Stadium.