João Gião hails Sporting prodigy: Today he played like Seba Coates | OneFootball

The Sporting under-19 team closed the UEFA Youth League group stage with a draw at Bayern Munich's home (3-3). João Gião admitted total Bavarian superiority throughout the match but noted that Lucas Taibo, who scored the equalizing goal in stoppage time, reminded him of Sebastián Coates.

"Bayern was better than us, both individually and collectively, in almost every part of the game. They only didn't surpass us in belief, there we matched or exceeded them, we take a point from here and managed to finish the group stage unbeaten, which was a goal. We had a lot of difficulty in having a possession game, in connecting our play from the back. We had to adopt a different approach than usual, a more direct and combative game because we weren't confident and we lacked some collective principles due to the absences we had," lamented the coach.

The coach of the lions still argued that the list of absences shaped the uniqueness of an emotional match and recalled the former Uruguayan captain: "What stands out is the attitude and belief of a team that fought, even knowing they weren't playing well. They never turned away from the fight, they went until the end, they had a bit of luck, our Lucas Taibo did a Seba Coates and we ended up smiling."

The brace by the Spanish central defender brought back memories of important goals scored by the former lions' defender, often used by Ruben Amorim as an adapted striker in the final minutes. In Munich, what was lacking in inspiration was made up for in attitude, but João Gião was not convinced.

"When there's no quality, we have to rely on grit, but as a formative team of Sporting, we are fully aware that this is not enough, we have to do better. It was a particular game, many absences, and a higher level than many players are used to playing weekly," he concluded.

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