Appearing Against Manchester City, Wonderkid Sporting CP Enters Champions League History

JAKARTA - A slick record of success was made by Sporting CP wonderkid, Rodrigo Ribeiro when playing against Manchester City in the second leg of the 2021/2022 Champions League last 16.

Ribeiro entered the history of the Champions League as the youngest player to appear in the knockout stages. According to Opta's records quoted from Goal International, Rodrigo Ribeiro became the first player to appear in the Champions League knockout stages before the age of 17.

This classy record was inscribed by Ribeiro because when he appeared he was only 16 years and 315 days old. Ribeiro himself is a player who occupies the position of second striker in a team that is an original dropout from the Sporting CP academy.

The match against Man City, which was held at the Etihad Stadium, Thursday, March 10, was the debut match for Ribeiro. He started to appear on the pitch after the coach appointed him as a substitute in the 89th minute to replace Sporting's senior striker, Islam Slimani.

Apart from the historical record that Ribeiro won, the unsatisfactory results should be accepted by Sporting CP. Despite being able to hold The Citizens to a 0-0 draw in the second leg, Ruben Amorim's team failed to advance to the quarter-finals.

The reason is, Sporting CP lost 0-5 on aggregate to Manchester City which closed the first leg with a big 5-0 victory thanks to goals from Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva's brace, and one goal each from Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling.

Thanks to this victory, Manchester City successfully overtook Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Real Madrid, who first secured a place in the 2021/2022 Champions League quarter-finals.