U19s Report: FC Porto 2 Leicester City 1

- The young Foxes were beaten 2-1 by FC Porto 

- Ayoub gave Porto the lead midway through the first period 

- Diogo Costa scored an own goal as City drew level on 55 minutes 

- Joao Cardoso netted just a minute later to win it for the hosts 

Leicester City’s Under-19s concluded their UEFA Youth League campaign with a slender 2-1 defeat to FC Porto at the FC Porto Training Centre on Wednesday afternoon. 

Porto went in front in the first period thanks to Ayoub’s clever finish from close range, but City responded well after the break as Diogo Costa punched the ball into his own net under pressure from Elliott Moore. 

The young Foxes’ lead lasted just a minute, as Joao Cardoso pounced on a loose pass and converted to put his side back in front. 

City battled to the end and were incredibly unlucky not to make it 2-2 in injury time, but Admiral Muskwe’s powerful strike hit the crossbar and FC Porto managed to clear their lines. 

While the young Foxes were unable to qualify for the knockout stages, FC Porto knew matching FC Copenhagen’s result against Club Brugge would secure their spot in the last-16 of the prestigious youth competition. 

The hosts’ attacking prowess was evident from the off as Oleg struck the woodwork with a towering header just three minutes into the game. 

Striker Paulo Estrela lifted Diogo Dalot’s cross over the bar shortly after, while Darnell Johnson headed Layton Ndukwu’s floated free kick wide under pressure inside the first 10 minutes of the match. 

The Portuguese outfit had plenty of possession and capitalised with 21 minutes gone when Ayoub turned home a low cross to beat Max Bramley from close range. 

Estrela nodded a corner wide of the mark four minutes later, while Bramley got down well with 36 minutes gone to prevent Porto from doubling their lead. 

A final opportunity of the first period followed for Porto with 40 minutes on the clock, but after making a good run into the channel, Ayoub dragged his shot across the face of goal and wide. 

Opportunities to equalise fell to Muskwe and Ndukwu after the interval, but it was the latter's creativity that saw Leicester make it 1-1, as the England youth international's corner was turned into his own net by stopper Diogo Costa. 

City were on level terms for just a minute, though, as Cardoso collected a misplaced pass and lifted the ball over Bramley to restore Porto’s lead. 

Goalscoring opportunities were in short supply for both sides following Porto’s second strike, and while City went in search of a second equaliser of the game, they couldn’t break down the opposition defence. 

Bramley pulled off a stunning save to turn away James Arthur’s bullet header as the game approached full-time, before Thandi was on hand to clear the follow-up. 

The young Foxes then came agonisingly close to getting themselves level for the second time in the clash in injury time, but after connecting well, Muskwe hammered the crossbar from the edge of the box. 

PORTO: D. Costa, Dalot, Queiros (Arthur 46), Fernandes, Oleg, Pires, B. Costa, Cassama (c), Estrela, Ayoub (Morais 89), Cardoso (Dinghao 82) 

SUBS NOT USED: Silva, Lameira, Queta, Sambu 

GOALS: Ayoub 21, Cardoso 56 

CITY: Bramley (c), Thandi, Moore (Templeton 67), Johnson, Ughelumba (Arlott-John 63), Ndukwu, Pascanu, Leshabela (Brown 46), Dewsbury-Hall, Bolkiah, Muskwe 

SUBS NOT USED: Yates, Fielding, Tee, Heaven 

GOAL: D. Costa o.g. 55

REFEREE: Laurent Kopriwa