São Paulo oust Botafogo with stunning halfway goal, reach semi-final | OneFootball

With a masterpiece from Paulinho, the famous ‘goal that Pelé never scored’, São Paulo defeated Botafogo 3-1 on Monday night (19th) in the quarterfinals of the Copinha, advancing to the semifinals of the U-20 competition.

The match, held at the Walter Ribeiro stadium in Sorocaba, saw Djhordney, Matheus Menezes, and top scorer Paulinho score the goals that secured Tricolor’s spot in the country’s main youth tournament. In the semifinals, they will face the surprise team Ibrachina, who knocked out Palmeiras on penalties to earn their place. The Paulista Federation will still confirm the date, time, and location, but the semifinal is expected to take place this Thursday (22nd).

ACROBATICS SAVE THE 1ST HALF

The first half was fiercely contested and balanced, with São Paulo making the better attacking moves. However, they struggled to create clear scoring chances.

It was only in stoppage time, at the 45th minute, that Tricolor took the lead with their strong aerial play. Djhordney pulled off an acrobatic header after a crossed free kick and scored to make it 1-0 for São Paulo in Sorocaba.

SPECTACULAR GOALS AND EMOTION

The team from Rio came back from halftime with a different attitude and began to threaten São Paulo’s goal, eventually finding the equalizer at the 11th minute with a beautiful goal. In an aerial play from Botafogo, Arthur Izaque appeared unmarked in the box and volleyed the ball into the top corner, tying the match at 1-1.

Tricolor didn’t let it get to them, Allan Barcellos made several changes to the team and it paid off. Paulinho took on the role of playmaker and delivered a beautiful pass to Igor Felisberto in the box. The full-back played it across to Matheus Menezes, who had come on in the second half, and he finished into the net, restoring Tricolor’s lead at the 38th minute.

The match became even more thrilling in the final minutes, with Botafogo desperately seeking a miraculous equalizer. And that’s when their elimination was sealed. On a corner for the Rio de Janeiro team, goalkeeper Rhyan Luca went up for the attack, but São Paulo cleared the ball. That’s when the moment of genius happened.

Number 9 Paulinho saw the open goal and, from far away, behind the center circle and still in his own half, took a shot. He scored a true wonder goal in Sorocaba to make it 3-1 and send São Paulo through to the Copinha semifinals. Watch the highlights below:

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