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

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

In the classic match held at the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy in Alcochete, the national under-17 coach José Lima watched the game 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 were in excellent form with ten consecutive victories, started by dominating and even hit the post. Nevertheless, it was FC Porto who took the lead at 9 minutes: Rodrigo Gonçalves, from the edge of the area, successfully finished a play initiated by a back pass from Gustavo Guerra.

The home team showed difficulties in reacting to the early goal, and the Porto team was close to increasing their lead at 29 minutes when Francisco Ferreira crossed dangerously and Tcherno Jamanca almost reached the shot.

Near halftime, Sporting equalized with a beautiful goal: Martim Ribeiro collected the ball in midfield and, from a long distance, fired a strong and precise shot straight into FC Porto's net.

In the second half, there was a lot of action, and both teams had chances to score. The first few minutes were also marked by several exchanges of banter between the players.

At 61 minutes, Martim Ribeiro almost scored again, but Francisco Mendes denied the goal with a good save. At 66, Afonso Gonçalves attempted a beautiful overhead kick from outside the area, which Afonso Redondo safely caught.

Towards the end, with 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 in this champion qualification phase, both with ten points.

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