Impressive Youth League display goes unrewarded with 3-1 defeat in Porto

U19 head coach Sven Hübscher made five changes to the side that lost 2-1 to VfL Bochum in the U19 Bundesliga West last time out. Playing in front of sporting managing director Simon Rolfes and his predecessor Rudi Völler, the Werkself were on the front foot at the start of the game. But the first chance of the game fell to Porto's Jorge Meireles but the centre-forward hit the outside of the left-hand post (7').

From that point, it was level pegging between the teams but there were few goalscoring opportunities with the exception of a long-range effort from Porto's Francisco Guedes on 24 minutes. The next clear-cut chance came to Porto's Rui Monteiro seven minutes later but he failed to hit the target. Bayer 04 captain Noah Pesch also tried his luck from distance shortly after that but the Porto keeper Goncalo Ribeiro was able to make the save (34'). And, as Porto's Umaro Cande was unable to beat the Werkself keeper Roy Steur (43'), the two sides went into half-time with the scoreline at 0-0.

Bayer 04 level- Porto retake lead

Bayer 04 coach Hübscher brought on Ken Izekor in place of Can Moustfa to provide more pace up front. And it was Izekor who shot from 20 yards out two minutes after the restart but he just missed the empty Portuguese goal by inches. Another double goalscoring opportunity for Joshua Eze and David Widlarz failed to break the deadlock (50'). The inability to convert chances was exposed a minute later: Porto's most impressive striker, Monteiro, hit a left-foot shot into the bottom left corner of the net to give the hosts a 1-0 lead on 51 minutes.

The Black and Reds continued to press forward after conceding the goal while the Dragons dropped back. With 58 minutes on the clock, Izekor chased to reach the ball but he was brought down by the Porto keeper Goncalo Ribeiro. The Greek referee Evangelos Manouchos rightly pointed to the spot – and Zidan Sertdemir coolly slotted the ball into the bottom left corner for a deserved leveller at 1-1. Parity was only maintained for eight minutes before centre-forward Meireles restored the lead for Porto at 2-1 (67').

Porto had a chance to settle the result ten minutes later following a foul in the penalty area by Daniel Lang on Monteiro but Meireles fired the ball way over the bar. Monteiro netted in added time from eight yards out for the final score of 3-1 (90+2'). So, the game ended in another defeat in spite of a very good performance by the Black and Reds.

away to Oberhausen

The Bayer 04 U19 side are next away to SC Rot-Weiß Oberhausen. The kick-off at the Niederrhein Stadium is at 10.00 CEST on Saturday 8 October. That is followed a week later by the DFB Cup Round of 16 tie against holders VfB Stuttgart at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.

Match stats:

Porto: G. Ribeiro - Rodrigues (Balde 75’), Vinhas, Bras, Silva (Ferreira 60’) - Guedes (Oliveira 60’), A. Ribeiro, Sousa - Monteiro, Meireles (Carvalho 85’), Cande (Regal 75’)

Bayer 04: Steur - Monamay, Okafor, Lang - Pesch, Köhl, Sertdemir, Eze, Aksoy - Moustfa (Izekor 46’), Widlarz (Onyeka 69’)

Goals: 1-0 Monteiro (51’), 1-1 Sertdemir (59’ pen.), 2-1 Meireles (67’), 3-1 Monteiro (90 +2’)

Booked: Meireles - Sertdemir, Moustfa, Steur, Okafor

Referee: Evangelos Manouchos (Greece)