Under-17: Sporting and FC Porto draw, both stay top of the table | OneFootball

The race for the national youth title remains tied. In the main match of the fourth round of the championship qualifying phase, Sporting and FC Porto drew 1-1 on Sunday morning and share the lead.

In the classic played at the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy in Alcochete, the national U-17 coach José Lima watched the match from the stands.

Sporting's coach, Pedro Pontes, lined up with Afonso Redondo, Salvador Fortuna, Mário William, Alexandre Rosado, Francisco Cabeçana, Rodrigo Nogueira, Martim Almeida, Vítor Conceição, David Almeida, Afonso Marques, and Martim Ribeiro.

For FC Porto, José João Rodrigues chose Francisco Mendes, Rodrigo Morais, Rodrigo Teixeira, Rodrigo Gonçalves, Francisco Ferreira, João Brito, Tcherno Jamanca, Gustavo Guerra, Rodrigo Barbosa, Afonso Vieira, and Gabriel Lança for the starting eleven.

Sporting, who came into the game in excellent form with ten consecutive wins, started off dominating and even hit the post. Nevertheless, it was FC Porto who took the lead at 9 minutes: Rodrigo Gonçalves, at the edge of the box, successfully finished a well-worked play that began with a back pass from Gustavo Guerra.

The home team struggled to react to the early goal, and Porto almost increased their lead in the 29th minute, when Francisco Ferreira crossed dangerously and Tcherno Jamanca nearly managed to shoot.

Close to halftime, Sporting equalized with a beautiful goal: Martim Ribeiro collected the ball in midfield and, still from long range, fired a strong and well-placed shot straight into FC Porto's net.

The second half was full of action, with both teams having chances to score. The opening minutes were also marked by several exchanges of words between the players.

At 61 minutes, Martim Ribeiro almost scored a brace, but Francisco Mendes denied the goal with a good save. In the 66th minute, Afonso Gonçalves tried a beautiful bicycle kick from outside the box, which Afonso Redondo safely held.

Near the end, after several substitutions, Francisco Simões tried to score from midfield but missed the target.

With this result, FC Porto and Sporting remain in the top two positions of this championship qualifying phase, both with ten points.

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