UEFA Champions Youth League 2018-19 – Round of 16
     Estadio Luis Filipe Menezes, Porto, Portugal
         Wednesday 13th March 2019, 11am (UK)

              FC PORTO    V    SPURS
             (All Blue)     (All White)
                4-4-2          4-1-4-1

                 2(0)            0(0)

             Diogo Costa  1  Brandon Austin(C)
           Tomas Esteves  2  Tariq Hinds
         Diogo Queiros(C) 3  Dennis Cirkin
             Diogo Leite  4  Oliver Skipp
             Tiago Lopes  5  Timothy Eyoma
              Mor Ndiaye  6  Brooklyn Lyons-Foster
            Angel Torres  7  Paris Maghoma
            Fabio Vieira  8  Harvey White
             Fabio Silva  9  Dilan Markanday
            Romario Baro 10  Dylan Duncan
              Joao Mario 11  J'Neil Bennett

       Francisco Meixeno 12  Jonathan Dinzeyi
             Tiago Matos 13  Jonathan De Bie
        Pedro Justiniano 14  Jubril Okedina
          Vitor Ferreira 15  Rayan Clarke
              (10)82Mins     (11)85Mins
           Alfonso Sousa 16  Tashan Oakley-Boothe
              (11)73Mins     (9)65Mins
          Goncalo Borges 17  Armando Shashoua
               (7)90Mins     (10)75Mins
       Taddeus Fomakwang 18  Luis Binks
               (9)90Mins

Scorers:- 
        Torres 52
        Baro 57

Booked:-
        Silva 61(Foul)        Eyoma 40(Foul)
        Ndiaye 85(Foul)

Coach:-
        Mario Silva           John McDermott

Referee:– Halil Umut Meler(TUR)
Assistants:– Gokmen Baltaci & Deniz Ozaral(TUR)
Fourth Official:– Joao Goncalves(POR) 

Spurs travelled to the Porto training centre on a warm sunny morning for the round of 16 match. Ironically this match was played a year to the day after Spurs lost to Porto 2-0 in the quarter-final of this competition. Quite a few players today were also involved in that game. Spurs beat PAOK away 1-0 in the play-off round while Porto were winners of Group D. Spurs were missing Jack Roles who picked up bookings in earlier matches and Troy Parrott who is injured. Because I had to have an operation on Tuesday I was unable to travel to Portugal and have compiled this report from my viewing of the BT Sport channel.

Spurs lined up with Austin in goal behind Eyoma and Lyons-Foster with Hinds at right back and Cirkin on the left. Skipp anchored the midfield with White and Duncan ahead of him. They were flanked by Maghoma on the right and Bennett on the left with Markanday playing as a false nine.

Spurs defended the South end in the first half which saw the hosts press high from the start getting players forward and getting round the back. Silva headed in at the far post but was ruled off-side before Spurs had their first chance when good work on the left saw Cirkin cross for the unmarked Maghoma at the far post. The Spurs midfielder made a hash of his effort when he had time to take a touch.

Most of the play was in the midfield with no final ball. Bennett had an effort over the bar before Vieira fired over and Silva shot wide. Maghoma headed Bennett's cross into the arms of Costa but was flagged offside anyway. Eyoma was booked for catching Silva with an arm off the ball. At the end of the half Costa got a hand to a low drive by Bennett when played in by Markanday to concede a corner.

There were no changes for the start of the second half which saw Spurs win a number of corners. White put the first under the bar for Costa to tip over. His second from the left found Bennett at the far post. His effort was blocked and Hinds follow-up waas deflected for a third corner. Lyons-Foster headed that one wide.

With Spurs now pushing forward, Mario was played through to draw a save from Austin. Porto were encouraged by this and moved the ball forward quickly with Baro playing in Torres on the right to curl the ball in for the opening goal. They increased their lead when Eyoma was caught in possession by Baro who scored from the return by Silva.

Silva had an effort saved by Austin before he was booked for a tackle from behind on Duncan. Porto were now happy to sit back with their two banks of four and spring forward when they won possession.

Bennett had an effort deflected wide from a good ball by Skipp before Spurs made their first change. Oakley-Boothe replaced Markanday with Bennett going up front.

Vieira won a corner before Silva had another effort saved by Austin. Porto began to make changes to see out the game and eat up the clock. Spurs sent on Shashoua in place of Duncan as they sought to get forward.

Vieira fired wide before Ndiaye was booked for stopping Skipp as he made a run through the middle. Clarke replaced Bennett on the left with Maghoma going up front. The hosts looked comfortable as they saw out the game with Spurs' last chance going to Lyons-Foster who volleyed wide from Hinds' ball in.

Porto were again too good for Spurs who lacked that cutting edge up front that Parrott or Roles could have provided. Spurs did have chances but they could not make much headway against a strong Porto defence. Chelsea are the only English club out of four to get through to the next round and are still on to retain the trophy they won last season. Spurs must hope that the first team will qualify for next season's Champions League so that the U-19's will again qualify for the Youth League.

Ray

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