Lucca stars, Paulinho shines: São Paulo reach Paulistão U20 final | OneFootball

São Paulo is in the grand final of the Paulistão Under-20. With two goals from Paulinho, Tricolor defeated Guarani 2-0 on Saturday morning (25), at the Thelmo de Almeida stadium in Cosmópolis, to advance to the youth tournament final.

After winning in Cotia 2-1 in the first semifinal, São Paulo won again thanks to the brilliance of top scorer Paulinho, who has been closely watched by Hernán Crespo at the end of this season for the professional team. The fight for the state title will be against Santos, who overcame Palmeiras in the other bracket.

Lucca, another player already training at CT da Barra Funda but who reinforced the U-20 team, started the path to victory after dribbling past several defenders and being fouled for a penalty, which Paulinho converted to open the scoring in the first half.

Guarani tried to respond, attacked, but Tricolor held their ground defensively and prevented the equalizer until halftime.

Back for the second half, in less than a minute, the goal scorer Paulinho showed his presence in the box to head the ball beautifully and seal the 2-0 victory for Allan Barcellos’ team, who are seeking another youth title.

Despite the result, the skillful winger Lucca said the match was not easy, but rather that Tricolor knew how to dominate their opponent.

“I don’t think the game was easy, I think the result is a bit misleading, because we managed to turn the game around, managed to bring more calm and ease to the match, we came into a very tough game, competed a lot, stayed very alert in marking, especially with Guarani’s long balls, and I think when we had the chances, we managed to finish them, but no, it wasn’t an easy game, I think the score is a bit deceiving. And as for Santos, a great team and I’m definitely excited to face them,” said the Tricolor gem to TNT Sports.

“I think we’ve come close many times as well, but last year we managed to win two important titles at the end of the season. So, I believe that even though we lost the last two years, we’re coming strong for this final,” Lucca added about his expectations for the final.

The finals between São Paulo and Santos are scheduled for two Saturdays, November 8 and 15. The times and locations of the matches will still be confirmed by the FPF.

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