THE FC Porto took, early this Wednesday afternoon, another step towards qualifying for the next phase of the UEFA Youth League, by hosting and beating Napoli, 3-1, after the victories already achieved over Manchester City (5-1) and PSV (3-1), and the heavy defeat suffered in the visit to Real Betis (5-0).
A match that started in the best possible way for the Portuguese team, which, in the seventh minute, saw Albanian referee Florian Lata award a penalty in their favor, after a foul committed on Eduardo Ferreira, which Tiago Silva converted, to open the scoring, at the LuÃs Filipe Menezes Stadium, in Vila Nova de Gaia.
With space, the Italians tried to respond, and, in one of the first moves after the break, they even saw Francisco Baridó hit the crossbar from Antoni Nikolov’s guard. However, they didn’t even have the opportunity to let themselves be encouraged, as, immediately in response, Eduardo Ferreira fired for the count.
The 19-year-old striker wanted even more, and, in the space of seven minutes, he hit the woodwork twice. Much happier was Duarte Cunha, who received a pass from Hjalte Froholdt, before taking an opponent out of the way and delivering a shot that still suffered a deflection. The reaction came in the 72nd minute, by Christian Liccardo.
Benfica qualified for the third round
Those who also did not give a chance were Benfica, who were not satisfied with the 6-0 defeat against Pafus, at the Benfica Campus, in Seixal, precisely a week ago, and went to the Stadio Stelios Kyriakides, in Cyprus, to beat Pafos, 1-3, to qualify for the third round of the UEFA Youth League Champions Path.
The first goal came after 15 minutes, by the feet of Tomás Soares, after a run from the right wing, and the second at 28. The 19-year-old striker was, once again, in the spotlight, this time, by assisting Francisco Silva, who added even greater volume to the combination of both hands.
Tomás Soares saw the post ‘steal’ his double, in the 51st minute, but the story didn’t end there, as, in the 64th minute, Stevan Manuel received a pass from Isaac Ferreira, moved from the left to the center and beat the opposing goalkeeper, Andreas Andreou. On the verge of the final whistle, Paris Papastylianou scored and sealed the final result.
The state of play of the UEFA Youth League
All in all, FC Porto now has nine points and moves, provisionally, to fifth place in the league stage of the UEFA Youth League, equal with Slavia Praga (who will still face Arsenal, at Aréal SC RadotÃn) and Viking (who, at precisely the same time, beat Sabah, at Sandnes Idrettspark, 5-0).
Ahead, the Dragons also have meetings scheduled with Feyenoord (on November 24th, at the Sportcomplex Varkenoord Hoodfeld, in the Netherlands) and Liverpool (on December 9th, at Liverpool’s Academy Ground, in England), which will dictate the final position they will occupy in the league table.
Benfica, for its part, reserved a place in the third round, where they will face Dinamo Zagreb. There, AZ Alkmaar, Fiorentina, Salzburg, Kairat Almaty and Maccabi Tel Aviv are also already located there, with the remaining 12 places definitely occupied by the end of this afternoon.
