Porto Launch Attack on Man City, Fernandinho, Bernardo Silva & Pep Guardiola in Club Newsletter

Porto have launched a bizarre attack towards Manchester City via the medium of the club's newsletter following the pair's 0-0 draw in the Champions League on Tuesday.

There was already bad blood between the two sides after the reverse fixture in October, with Porto manager Sergio Conceicao and Pep Guardiola clashing on the touchline over a selection of decisions.

A draw at Estadio do Dragao was enough to send both City and Porto through to the Champions League knockout stages, but this didn't prevent the Portuguese outfit from taking a number of snide swipes towards City, Fernandinho, Bernardo Silva and Guardiola.

Conceicao and Guardiola clashed at the Etihad in October / MARTIN RICKETT/Getty Images

"In the end, a point against the most expensive squad in the world was all that FC Porto needed to achieve one of their goals," the newsletter read [via the Daily Mail].

"The coach praised the 'organisation' and 'merit' of the team and also commented on Pep Guardiola's bad disposition after the meeting: 'I would also be upset if I couldn't win with the team he has and the budget he has'.

"In fact, the Manchester City coach and players - who also struggled to cope with the result - should even be grateful for the luck they had with refereeing again.

"After the scandals of the game in England, this time a penalty was missed for Ederson's more than evident foul on Otavio. In addition there should have been a red card given to Fernandinho, who despite being 35 is a clear example that football money counts a lot, but it doesn't buy class or notion."

Strange reading the statement from Porto the game looked comfortable to me. Annoying part is the racism claim. No racism should be ignored and trying to deflect isn’t going to work. Clearly selective memory, I’m sure them receiving a fine for targeting Mario in 2012 just a memory pic.twitter.com/geHT8PBova
— Joleon Lescott (@JoleonLescott) December 2, 2020

The newsletter also referred to Silva as "an opponent of ours who is known internationally for having been convicted of racism" - a reference to the one match ban the City player received in 2019 for comparing teammate Benjamin Mendy to a cartoon character in a tweet. The FA acknowledged that Silva “did not intend” for the tweet to be racist.

“This is not the first time that Porto have reacted badly in circumstances like this,” a City spokesperson said in response to Porto's newsletter. “On this occasion it is the ill-judged and targeted criticism of some of our individual players and indeed our manager, which we wholly reject.

“In 2012, the last season we encountered them, it was the denial by the club of clear racist behaviour of their fans for which they were investigated and fined. In this context, this latest outburst is almost as surprising as it is disappointing.”