São Paulo stun Botafogo with wondergoal, reach Copinha semis | OneFootball

With a masterpiece from Paulinho, the famous ‘goal that Pelé never scored’, São Paulo defeated Botafogo 3-1 on Monday night (19th) in the quarterfinals of the Copinha, advancing to the semifinals of the under-20 competition.

The match, played at the Walter Ribeiro stadium in Sorocaba, saw Djhordney, Matheus Menezes, and top scorer Paulinho score to secure Tricolor’s place in the country’s main youth tournament. In the semifinals, they will face surprise team Ibrachina, who eliminated Palmeiras on penalties to earn their spot. The São Paulo Football Federation will still confirm the date, time, and location, but the semifinal is expected to take place this Thursday (22nd).

ACROBATICS SAVE THE FIRST HALF

The first half was fiercely contested and balanced, with São Paulo making better attacking moves. However, they struggled to create clear scoring chances.

It was only in stoppage time, at the 45th minute, that Tricolor took the lead with their trademark play—through the air. Djhordney performed an acrobatic move to head the ball after a crossed free kick and made it 1-0 for São Paulo in Sorocaba.

SPECTACULAR GOALS AND EMOTION

The team from Rio came back from halftime with a different attitude and started threatening São Paulo’s goal, eventually finding the equalizer at 11’ with a beautiful goal. In an aerial play from Botafogo, Arthur Izaque appeared unmarked in the box to volley the ball into the top corner, leveling the match at 1-1.

Tricolor didn’t let it get to them; Allan Barcellos made several changes to the team, and it paid off. Paulinho took on the role of playmaker and delivered a beautiful pass to Igor Felisberto in the box. The full-back touched it to Matheus Menezes, who had come on in the second half, and he finished into the net, restoring Tricolor’s lead at 38’.

The match became even more thrilling in the final minutes, with Botafogo desperately seeking a miraculous equalizer. That’s when their elimination was sealed. On a corner kick for the Rio de Janeiro team, goalkeeper Rhyan Luca went up for the attack, but São Paulo got the rebound. That’s when the moment of genius happened.

Number 9 Paulinho saw the open goal and, from far away—behind the center circle, still in his own half—took a shot. He scored a true wonder goal in Sorocaba to make it 3-1 and secure São Paulo’s place in the Copinha semifinals. Watch the highlights below:

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