UEFA Youth Champions League Thread 14/15

[RealGunner]

Group stage

The UEFA Youth League group stage is formed using the same draw that will decide the UEFA Champions League group stage, which took place in Monaco on 28 August.

Group A: Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP), Juventus (ITA), Olympiacos FC (GRE), Malmö FF (SWE)

Group B: Real Madrid CF (ESP), FC Basel 1893 (SUI), Liverpool FC (ENG), PFC Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL)

Group C: SL Benfica (POR), FC Zenit (RUS), Bayer 04 Leverkusen (GER), AS Monaco FC (FRA)

Group D: Arsenal FC (ENG), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Galatasaray AŞ (TUR), RSC Anderlecht (BEL)

Group E: FC Bayern München (GER), Manchester City FC (ENG), PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS), AS Roma (ITA)

Group F: FC Barcelona (ESP, holders), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), AFC Ajax (NED), APOEL FC (CYP)

Group G: Chelsea FC (ENG), FC Schalke 04 (GER), Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR), NK Maribor (SVN)

Group H: FC Porto (POR), FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR), Athletic Club (ESP), FC BATE Borisov (BLR)  

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Today's Scores[FT]

Juventus 2-0 Malmo [Soumah, Udoh]
Liverpool 4-0 Ludogoret[Sinclair x 2, Cleary, O'Hanlon]
Monaco 3-1 Leverkusen
Galatasaray 3-0 Anderlecth
Benfica 0-0 Zenit
Real Madrid 2-0 Basel[Mayoral, harper]
Olympiacos 1-2 Atletico
Barcelona 3-0 APOEL[Padilla, El Ouriachi , J.Garcia]

[futbol]

Munir was playing in this just last season.

[rwo power]

Well, at least two of Schalke's U19 squad have to play with the big boys against Chelsea due to injuries in the senior squad...

[Shed]

Only able to catch the second half but a good game between Chelsea and Schalke at Cobham just now. The hosts largely dominant (at least in the second half) and Schalke, for all their reputation, disappointing. 4-1 the final score, courtesy of a sublime goal and a brace from England strikers Dom Solanke and Izzy Brown respectively, with full-back Ola Aina netting Chelsea's last. Multhaup on the scoresheet for the Germans.

[Zealous]

Jack Harper ffs

[RealGunner]

Loftus-Cheek is a beast. Hope Everton gets him rather than some shit team like West ham etc

[rwo power]

Schalke, for all their reputation, disappointing.

Don't forget that Schalke needs to fill up their senior squad with U19 players or they wouldn't be able to field a full squad of 11 tonight. That left the U19 a bit understrength, too

[Jay29]

Arsenal beat Dortmund earlier today 2-0. Both goals from Kaylen Hinds. Arsenal's starting eleven had 10 English players, which is something of an accomplishment these days.

Wish they televised more of these games.

[RealGunner]

[Gil]

Loftus-Cheek is incredible.

[Curtinho]

Didn't see this topic. Liverpool was a class above Ludo. Ryan Kent, Seyi Ojo and Jordan Rossiter especially stood out. Sinclair and Wilson were also quite good (Wilson only got a sub appearance but still was great in limited time, setting up the 4th goal with a cracking free kick).

I actually really like Liverpool's chances of going far in this competition. With a team composed of the likes of Sinclair, Ojo, Kent, Wilson, Brannagan, Rossiter, Canos, Chirivella, etc. I think they will give any team fits.

[futbol]

"We want to win, but it's about how we win," Jordi Vinyals told UEFA.com, the coach putting style first as FC Barcelona defend their UEFA Youth League crown.

Only five players from the FC Barcelona squad that won the inaugural UEFA Youth League five months ago took part in the opening match of their title defence, a 3-0 win against APOEL FC.
Partly, that is the nature of the competition – this season, only players born on or after 1 January 1996 are eligible. However, in this case it is also a tribute to the overarching philosophy first embedded in this club in the late 1980s by Johan Cruyff, that "if you are good enough you are old enough". In fact, the better the player in Barcelona's famous Cantera (youth system), the quicker coaches will promote him upwards, and out of any potential comfort zone.
Of those who have vaulted forwards in their career thanks to the experience, success and profile gained while winning the UEFA Youth League in April, Munir El Haddadi is now not only a Barcelona first-team regular but a Spain international, while Adama Traoré is pulling up trees in Eusebio Sacristán's Barça B as they sit near the top of Spain's second division.

Among those who are left behind for coach Jordi Vinyals to profit from, Enguene and Wilfrid Kaptoum grabbed the attention throughout the debut win. The goals went to Isaac Padilla, Mohamed El Ouriachi (aka Moha) and Juanma García, but it was the pair of Cameroon-born 18-year-olds who ran the game.

Enguene, in particular, laid on a show. Two assists and a wicked swerving free-kick off the crossbar marked this down as a night when, even in the rigid Barcelona tactical system employed with a 4-3-3 formation, he was permitted almost total freedom to roam.

Vinyals told UEFA.com after the match: "Enguene just loves to be on the ball all the time, to prompt the movement of the team. We do try to instil in all of them that positional intelligence and discipline are important at all times – it's how the team prevents gaps appearing for the opposition to take advantage of. However, this was a game where there was more space and he moved around to take advantage."

Watched by Eusebio, former Barça midfielder Gabri, and Carles Puyol – now assistant to director of football Andoni Zubizarreta – the youth team dominated but failed to convert that pressure into a big score. "This was an opportunity for many more goals," Vinyals confirmed. "In this group, thinking about qualification, it's feasible that a goal here or there might actually determine whether or not you go through."

On the day when the club announced that their main training pitch would be named after the late Tito Vilanova, it was emotive to see his son, Adrià, make the bench for the junior version of the competition his father twice won as assistant to Josep Guardiola.

Vinyals was eager to remind his players of that sense of continuity, of successes built on heartfelt principles. "We are Barcelona – we want to retain our trophy," he said. "We must play with the same pride and quality as always. We want to win, but it's how we win – how we play – that is most important."

http://www.uefa.com/uefayouthleague/news/newsid=2148711.html

Hope we can retain our title.

[Curtinho]

Ajax have a very strong youth team for this tournament. Absolutely pumped PSG's youth team. Should be interesting to see the Ajax kids go against the Barca ones.

[DuringTheWar]

Arsenal have a very technical looking team this year. Zelalem, Crowley, willock, iwobi and hinds are all ball players. Will be interesting to see how it translates into matches, hopefully our new Dutch coach will know how to get them to work in a system.

[McAgger]

So how did your kids do this round?

[Shed]

So how did your kids do this round?

5-0 win for the Baby Blues against Sporting
-

[rwo power]

Well, the Schalke kids did better than the seniors and won 5:0 against the Maribor kids, while the Bayern kids were defeated 3:1 by the Moscow kids.

[Winter is Coming]

2-2 against the PSG kids

[RealGunner]

4-0 atm against Gala

Zelalem scored this goal

https://vine.co/v/OmJK25lUeAd

[Zealous]

Real Madrid's Juvenil A Thumped Ludo 0-3 Lazo with two goals and Cedres with 1

Pool lost to Basel 3-2, so that means we are top ffs

Atleti Kids beat Juve kids 1-0. ()

[RealGunner]

All of talented juve kids are on loan elsewhere tbf lol

[Tomwin Lannister]

Yeah lol don't care about our kid team because anybody worthwhile is on loan at one of our 500 friendly clubs

[Curtinho]

Liverpool should have won. Same problems as the first team right now in that they're creating a lot of scoring chances but not finishing, and then they're conceding easy goals on set pieces or individual mistakes. Worrying to say the least. I didn't like the team selection either, and they fell apart after Rossiter was subbed off.

Oh well, they should still advance but that was a bad loss that they should have won IMO.

[windkick]

I hope we can retain the title; will be hard without Munir though

[sportsczy]

Monaco have invested A TON in their youth squad. I expect them to contend.

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