U19s knocked out in UEFA Youth League last 16 | OneFootball

Eintracht’s U19s suffered a 1-0 defeat in a tight game against Portuguese side Sporting CP, bringing to an end a historic European campaign.

First chance for Eintracht Alex Meier’s charges had the first sight of goal in the sixth minute when Niko Ilicevic crossed into the box and found Alexander Staff, whose close-range header was kept out by a fine reflex save from Sporting goalkeeper Miguel Gouveia. Eagles fall behindEintracht went a goal down in the 19th minute when goalkeeper Amil Siljevic diverted a right-wing cross from Salvador Blopa into his own net with his foot. 

Heavy pressureMeier’s charges pushed hard for an equaliser before half-time, but despite creating a number of chances they lacked the cutting edge to put them away. Opportunities at both ends Gouveia thwarted Staff once again in the 71st minute, and at the other end of the pitch, Siljevic kept Eintracht in the game with a superb save to deny Miguel Almeida one-on-one following  a counter.

Eintracht down to ten

The Eagles were forced to play with ten men in the closing stages after Derek Boakiye-Osei was shown a second yellow card in the 83rd minute. Siljevic produced another fine block shortly after that, this time from Flavio Goncalves. Marvin Dills had an opening in stoppage time but narrowly missed the target from ten metres out. As such, Eintracht were eliminated from this season’s competition. Nevertheless, they still wrote their names in the record books by becoming the first team in the club’s history to reach the UEFA Youth League round of 16.