Ryan Francisco shines on return, São Paulo beat Fluminense, loanee scores | OneFootball

São Paulo had good news on Wednesday afternoon (8) in Cotia. The first, of course, was the 1-0 win over Fluminense in the 5th round of the Brazilian U-20 Championship. And the second was the return of wonderkid Ryan Francisco, who played for the first time after undergoing knee surgery last season.

The scheduling of the youth-team match is part of the plan to readapt the 19-year-old to the demands of a game. Ryan, who suffered a ligament rupture on July 15, 2025, during a training session at CT da Barra Funda, completed the entire physical transition process, with a gradual increase in workload.

Ryan came on in the 16th minute of the second half against Fluminense and moved well, taking part in some of São Paulo’s attacking plays.

THE MATCH

Tricolor’s winning goal was scored by Djhordney, a defensive midfielder who already trains with Roger Machado’s senior squad, but like other players was loaned to the U-20 team.

The first half was completely dominated by São Paulo. Vizolli’s team controlled the pace of the match and created far more attacking chances, but the opposition managed to withstand the home side’s pressure.

In the second half, all that pressure paid off. Just four minutes in, Luiz Fernando took a throw-in into the box, Djhordney flicked a header on and opened the scoring for Tricolor.

In the 27th minute, João Pedro made a great save and helped secure the positive result. The opposition pushed in the closing minutes, but could not stop São Paulo from winning.

With the result, Tricolor moved up to 7 points and returned to the upper part of the league table in the Brazilian Championship. São Paulo return to the field next Thursday, the 16th, to face Avaí at 3 p.m. (Brasília time) at Ressacada, in Florianópolis (SC).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.