The Youth League generates two stars

This afternoon’s Portuguese Clásico (7:00pm) won’t have many qualifying incentives because Benfica have a ten-point advantage with only eight matches remaining, but there will be a very exciting one-on-one duel. Goncalo Ramos and Diogo Costa will face each other in a showdown that has not yet determined a clear winner.

Until today, both of them have met four times. One of them was with affiliates and in that match Ramos played only 6 minutes. However, since then his presence (66′, 73′ and 90′) has increased in his duels, but all of them have ended Without a single target for the attacker. In terms of results, the tie is total: in two of them Benfica won and in the other two, Porto.

Both are exploding this season as the star players on their respective teams. The goalkeeper so much that he undisputedly earned the starting tag in the national team and the striker, Impressing Europe with its 25 goals And many exhibitions in the Champions League.

The amazing thing is that they both share milestones in their careers as youth players in the Youth League. Against the best boys of his era in Europe, Diogo Costa won the Youth Champions League in 2019. Together with Vitinha, Diogo Leite or Fábio Silva, beat Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher in the final. And Goncalo Ramos could not win it, but he reached the final. A game he came to by eliminating great youth academies like Liverpool, Dinamo Zagreb or Ajax. In the final, they lost to Real Madrid, led by Raul, which had such players as Miguel Gutierrez, Arribas and Alvaro Rodriguez. But little can be blamed on Ramos after he scored both of his side’s goals in the 3-2 final. The Portuguese finished that version of the Youth League as the top scorer with 8 goals.

Oddly enough, both of them make up an almost fatal couple. Between Team Sub-21 and Absolute, they both played 12 games and won 10 of them. With the 21-year-old striker and 23 goalkeeper, they look destined to head out this summer to a big game in Europe.. They are two very important positions in any team and their performance in 2022/23 fell in love with anyone who saw them. It won’t be cheap though. Diogo Costa signed a €75m severance clause in his latest renewal and it would be rare for Benfica to accept an offer for Gonzalo Ramos that did not hit the same figure.