UEFA has been organizing the UEFA Youth League for three seasons now, alongside the Champions League competition, where players younger than 19 years old compete. Youth teams are divided into the same groups, but the results often differ from those we see in the matches of the main teams. In this Eurofootball.com article, five observations from the UEFA Youth League matches are presented to you.
The youth of English clubs are following in the footsteps of the main teams. Manchester United remained in third place, Arsenal took second place, while the youth of Manchester City and Chelsea won their groups. Have we seen such results somewhere before? It seems that English clubs also remained in similar positions in the Champions League. This stability probably was not desired only by Manchester United, from which, just like from the men's team, much more was expected.
Is there a lack of new talents in Germany? In recent years, German youth teams have shown excellent results, and local talents have been constantly making their way into the main team compositions. It seems that expecting the same in the near future, at least in the four strongest German teams, will be difficult. None of the German teams participating in the UEFA Youth League made it to the knockout stage from the group stage, and only Bayer's youth team did not finish last in their group.
The youth academies in Spain are working exceptionally well. Spanish clubs had the most representation in the UEFA Youth League, and all five teams that participated in the tournament managed to reach the next stage. The most productive player in the group stage is Roberto Nunez, who also hails from Spain and belongs to the Atletico team. It seems that in the future, many of the strongest Spanish teams will try to incorporate this shining player who performed well in the youth matches.
Astana has nothing to be proud of in terms of their youth. Although these championships were characterized by fierce and unpredictable matches, with 31 out of 32 teams earning points, Astana's youth team had a tragic tournament. They not only failed to earn a single point, but they also lost all matches by at least a 3-goal margin, scoring only one goal themselves and conceding a staggering 35. The team from Kazakhstan, which earned four points in the Champions League group stage matches, relied mostly on foreign players, and after such a performance by the young players, it is clear that they will not be able to change their tactics to repeat similar results.
The youth academies of clubs in the Netherlands and Croatia are rightly praised. Although PSV, and even more so Dinamo Zagreb, do not dominate in Europe, their youth teams are of a very high level, as demonstrated in these championships. The youth of these teams won their group matches and left many more famous teams behind in the nearest substitute. Players from the youth academies in these clubs are constantly included in the main team, and looking at this year's results, this process should not stop.
For more detailed information about team results and their positions in the groups, you can click on this link.
Tautvydas Sakalauskas
