Sporting recover from 3-1 down to win 4-3 in epic comeback | OneFootball

The Sporting U23 team staged a great comeback this Saturday, beating Leixões 4-3 away from home in the fifth round of the first phase of the Next Gen League. The Lions went into half-time trailing 3-1, but an excellent second-half performance allowed them to turn the result around and secure their fourth consecutive win.

The home side were more clinical and opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Leandro Kauã, who grabbed his second goal five minutes later. João Rodrigues pulled one back in the 25th minute with a superb strike from outside the box, but Rodrigo Granja restored the home side’s advantage at 28' (3-1).

Leandro Grimi, the Lions’ new coach, made changes at half-time, with five substitutions, and Sporting’s response was immediate. In the 63rd minute, Daniel Lopes took advantage of a save by João Coelho from Miguel Almeida’s shot to make it 3-2. Shortly afterwards, Miguel Almeida himself equalised, finishing brilliantly from an outside-of-the-foot cross by Edgar Sequeira. In just a few minutes, Sporting came back from a two-goal deficit and went into the final stretch of the match on top.

The comeback was completed near the end. Miguel Almeida was fouled inside the box and took responsibility for the penalty, making no mistake to make it 4-3 and complete his brace. In the next round, Sporting’s U23s will host Académico de Viseu.

The starting eleven fielded by the green-and-white club was made up of: Alexandre Tverdohlebov (Goalkeeper), Simão Soares, Jakub Stasiak, Atanásio Cunha, Daniel Lopes, Paulo Simão, Leonardo Varela, João Rodrigues, Rayhan Momade (C), Délcio Aurélio and Miguel Almeida.

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