Loan watch: Felipe Anderson makes FC Porto debut

Felipe Anderson


West Ham United winger Felipe Anderson made his FC Porto debut on Saturday evening as a second-half substitute against Sporting Lisbon.

The Brazilian forward, who joined the Primeira Liga champions on a season-long loan prior to the international break, entered proceedings after 59 minutes – alongside former Hammer, Toni Martinez – to help his side claim an important point at Estádio José Alvalade.

A keenly-fought encounter had seen Sporting Lisbon take an early lead through Nuno Santos’ brilliant ninth-minute volley, only for Porto to turn things around prior to the interval: their first goal a controlled volley from Mateus Uribe, their second a smart Jesus Corona finish on the stroke of half-time.

Wearing the No28 shirt, Anderson entered the fray with half-an-hour remaining and showed some nice touches, but saw his side come under increasing pressure, eventually yielding a point for Sporting when Luciano Vietto stabbed home with three minutes remaining.

Now two games without a win, FC Porto and Anderson travel to England in midweek to take on Manchester City at Etihad Stadium. 

Enjoying a landmark spell in his career in recent weeks has been Olatunji Akinola at League Two side Leyton Orient.

The 21-year-old, on loan at the O’s until the end of the 2020/21 campaign, made his third appearance for the east London side in their last-minute 2-3 loss at home to Grimsby on Saturday.

Playing at right-back, where the versatile defender featured several times for West Ham Under-23s earlier this season, Akinola was powerless to prevent his side from falling to a harsh defeat at the Breyer Group Stadium.

Akinola recently made his full Football League debut when he played the full 90 minutes of Leyton Orient’s midweek defeat at Walsall, just three days after his Leyton Orient and Football League bow at Barrow last week.
 


On the other side of the world, fellow defender Winston Reid made his ninth appearance for Sporting Kansas City as they also fell to a late goal in a 2-2 draw at Chicago Fire.

Despite showing sharp reflexes with one particularly impressive first-half block, the New Zealand international saw his side twice take the lead in the Major League Soccer fixture, only for injury-time goals in both halves to deny his team three points.

The result prevented Sporting KC from going to the top of the MLS Western Conference; they instead sit in third place with four games to go, one point behind league leaders Seattle Sounders, who also have a game in hand.

Elsewhere, young attackers Dan Kemp and Xande Silva were unused substitutes for League One and Super League Greece sides Blackpool FC and Aris Thessaloniki FC respectively.
 

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