At the business end of the season, Benfica beat Sporting in derby | OneFootball

There is nothing better than ending the season with a derby triumph. On Sunday morning, Benfica’s U17 team travelled to the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy, where they faced Sporting. In a match from the 14th round of the National U17 Championship, the Eagles beat the Lions 1-0.

Gustavo Santos, David Fernandes, Miguel Vieira, Benjamim Semedo, Leonardo Tavares, Miguel Galinho, Tomás Almeida, Hugo Gomes, Paulo Souza, Afonso Ferreirinha and Bernardo Rodrigues were the eleven players who started the match at Sporting’s ground and helped the Eagles secure all three points.

At a time when the qualification phase is practically decided, with Porto as champions, Eagles and Lions took to the pitch to determine who would finish in second place. In a balanced match, Sporting started better and had the first dangerous chance. From the 10-minute mark onwards, Benfica grew into the game and responded to the home side’s strong start.

Just past the half-hour mark, the team in red finally found the breakthrough, with Afonso Ferreirinha opening the scoring to make it 1-0, a result that remained until half-time. In the second half, both rivals had several chances, but no more goals were scored, although Sporting came close to equalising in stoppage time.

With this result, the Lisbon club brought the curtain down on a season marked by ups and downs, in which they missed the chance to retain the title won in 2024/25. With the numbers now in, and with four rounds still to be played, Benfica sit second with 26 points. Sporting, meanwhile, are in fourth place, behind Braga, with 23 points.

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