Arsenal’s Under-19s also beat Bayern Munich 2-0 on Tuesday and are setting the pace in the Uefa Youth League where Andries Jonker’s young talents are thriving against testing opponentsAs it happens,Arsenal beat Bayern Munich 2-0 a few hours before Petr Cech, Olivier Giroud, and Mesut Özil and the rest began to etch out a result of heavyweight Champions League importance. The circumstances were somewhat different: 12 miles away from the Emirates Stadium,in leafy Borehamwood, where on the approach to the game a couple of staff in Uefa branded bibs looked less than thrilled with the thankless task of bobbing into the woodland next to the narrow away terrace to hunt for balls that were smashed over in the warm-up.
Welcome to the parallel universe of the Champions League. The competitions younger brother whether you will. It is the Uefa Youth League, or the under-19 version that mimics the elite competition. What started out as the NextGen Series,hurry as an external commercial venture until Uefa twigged what a friendly conception it was and ushered it in house, has been trialled by the European governing body for two years. Now it is in its first season as a permanent fixture in its competition stable, or offers an opportunity for emerging players to feel that bit closer to the place they all crave to be.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com