Porto take the prize

FC Porto added their name to the UEFA Youth League roll of honour in 2018/19 as Chelsea again fell just short.

Twelve months earlier Chelsea lost in the final to Barcelona, who joined the Blues on two tournament wins after five seasons. This time Chelsea saw Barcelona off in the semi-finals in Nyon, only to then lose to Porto.

Chelsea made it to the semi-finals from the domestic champions path, the first team to do so since Salzburg ended up lifting the trophy in 2017. Having already faced Molde, Elfsborg, Monaco and Montpellier, a penalty shoot-out took the English club past GNK Dinamo in the quarter-finals after they had recovered from 2-0 down in the 90 minutes. That proved useful experience for Chelsea, as in their rematch with the side that beat them 3-0 in the 2018 final, the Blues equalised twice against Barcelona before a 5-4 shoot-out success.

Porto, like Barcelona and Chelsea, were in the finals for the second year running; in 2018, they had fallen to the English side on penalties in the semis. This time Porto took on Hoffenheim, who on debut had topped a group containing Lyon and Manchester City before knocking out Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. However, Porto ended that run with a 3-0 win.

In the final, Porto struck first after 17 minutes through Fábio Vieira, only for Daishawn Redan to equalise early in the second half. Porto soon responded through Diogo Queirós, and substitite Afonso Sousa wrapped up a 3-1 success as they kept out Chelsea striker Charlie Brown, who scored a record-equalling 12 goals in the season to take his career tally to a competition joint-best 15.

Proud Porto coach Mário Silva said: "It is a victory of a squad, of a structure, of a club. We were the first club in Portugal to achieve it. Our names were recorded in the history of Portuguese football and, especially, in the history of our club."