Youth Derby: 7 Goals & 2 Comebacks!

It was only at 90+3′ that Sporting secured a victory that 27 minutes earlier was very distant. Benfica let three points slip after a start to the game to forget. In the end, the lions roared louder than the eagles flew and secured 1st place in the South Phase of the youth championship, two days from the end. Then the champion qualification phase remains to be played.

Sporting had a practically perfect opening 35 minutes. Duarte Tomás missed (10′) a brilliant opportunity, but redeemed himself in the 27th minute, with the perfect assist for Vítor Conceição’s goal. Clearly on top of the game, Sporting didn’t slow down and Sandro Ferreira hurt the eagle (29′) with a cross shot, following a pass from José Lino.

Pedro Faria couldn’t wait any longer and made four substitutions in the 34th minute. And with immediate effect. The newly introduced Tomás Pedrosa discovered (39′) Afonso Ferreirinha, who revived the match in the 2nd half.

The lanky Francisco Wang, who had also started the match on the bench, equalized (61′) with a strong shot. The lions were weak in defense and Benfica took advantage to complete the turnaround (66′) through Afonso Ferreira, assisted by another player off the bench, Nazif Inoussa.

Pedro Pontes refused to lose the battle of substitutions and made the right decision by releasing David Moreira. The striker took off, shot against the post, but the effect of the ball made it enter the goal (78′), after Martim Ribeiro almost scandalously missed the goal line.

Inoussa missed (84′) a great chance to make it 4-3 for Benfica, heading over with an empty goal in front of him, Martim Ribeiro didn’t do the same. Another player coming off the bench only had to pull over after a defensive failure by the Eagles, launching an explosion of joy, under copious rain, at the Aurélio Pereira stadium.