Match halted for racism, São Paulo beat Fortaleza in U20 cup | OneFootball

São Paulo took a big step towards qualifying for the Under-20 Brazil Cup by defeating Fortaleza 2-0 this Wednesday (12th), at the Presidente Vargas stadium in Fortaleza (CE), in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the youth competition.

The Cotia gems Pedro Ferreira and Gustavo Santana scored the goals for Tricolor's victory, in a match that had to be paused by the referee in the first half due to a racism accusation made by São Paulo's Matheus Ferreira.

Even away from home, the Made In Cotia players opened the scoring just 9 minutes into the match. In the play, Pedro Ferreira took advantage of the rebound from Igor Felisberto's cross and finished firmly to put Tricolor ahead.

The unfortunate incident occurred at the 26th minute of the first half. Matheus Ferreira and the Chilean Rocco, from the Ceará team, began to argue and the opponent allegedly said “shut up, you monkey,” according to reports from the São Paulo delegation. The racial slur was directed at midfielder Djhordney.

Referee Paulo Vitor de Lima Pereira promptly initiated FIFA's anti-racism protocol, but four minutes later, after much complaint and little resolution, the match continued normally without any punishment. Rocco was substituted and did not return for the second half for Fortaleza.

Tricolor's defender and captain Andrade did not mince words and demanded punishment for Rocco.

“We can no longer tolerate this. He should be taken to the police station from here. We need to address this as quickly as possible. I didn't hear it, but my friends did,” explained São Paulo's number 4.

Resuming the game in the second half, Tricolor increased the score at 15 minutes with Gustavo Santana, who took advantage of a defensive error, won the challenge with the goalkeeper, and pushed the ball into the empty net.

The second match takes place next Wednesday (19th), at 3:30 PM (Brasília time), at CFA Laudo Natel, in Cotia. São Paulo can lose by up to one goal difference and still qualify for the Brazil Cup semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Tricolor is competing in the final of the Under-20 Paulista Championship against Santos. After a 1-1 draw at Vila Belmiro, the teams will face each other again this Sunday (16th), at 3 PM, at Francisco Ribeiro Nogueira stadium, in Mogi das Cruzes (SP).

Under-20: João Pedro; Igor Felisberto (Isac, 17/2), Igão, Andrade (Osorio, at halftime) and Felipe; Matheus Ferreira (Kaio, at halftime), Djhordney (Guilherme Reis, 11/2) and Pedro Ferreira (Nicolas, at halftime); Tetê (Lucca, 11/2), Gustavo Santana and Juan Potes. Coach: Allan Barcellos.

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