Looking forward to this new comp, and a chance to see some of the worlds best young players.
A new era will start on Tuesday morning when the first ever game in the UEFA Youth League gets under way between FC Viktoria Plzeň and Manchester City FC.
It is UEFA's first full competition for youth clubs with the Under-19 teams of the 32 UEFA Champions League participants squaring off in an autumn programme that mirrors the senior sides' group stage campaigns. The UEFA Champions League is full of memorable stories of teenagers thrusting themselves into the consciousness of football fans worldwide with a dazzling display, and the UEFA Youth League gives those players a new international platform to make their own strides towards the highest level of club football.
The players may be relatively unknown – for the time being – but the competition has already received its own sprinkling of star dust with many of the youth teams being coached by heroes of UEFA Champions League seasons gone by. Manchester City will be led out at the Plzen training ground by Patrick Vieira.
Meanwhile, a 15.00CET kick-off on Wednesday at the Stadio Ernesto Breda awaits Milan coach Filippo Inzaghi – the seventh highest scorer in European Cup history – in his team's game with Celtic FC. Then there is Nicky Butt, who is taking charge of Manchester United FC's youngsters. The former midfielder's team will play Bayer 04 Leverkusen in Tuesday's live televised game on Eurosport of which there will be one every matchweek.
UEFA.com will have highlights of that match, as well as a daily round-up with coach reaction from a selection of the games. For the first matchday UEFA.com will also have a video feature from the first ever game in the competition, Plzeň v City, and further reaction from the FC Bayern München v CSKA Moskva tie.
With games mainly taking place in the afternoon before the senior clubs' UEFA Champions League fixtures, both visiting and home fans will be able to enjoy a bonus match ahead of the evening event – and they may also get to see future first-team regulars up close and the in flesh right at the start of their careers.
Contentious format as UEFA spotted the success of Nextgen and have produced their own tournament. Instead of successful academies being invited to compete, it is now mandatory for teams in the champions league.
Which means last year's winners Aston Villa and semi-finalists Sporting Lisbon miss out. With no european level football for their impressive academies.
As such we will see huge mismatches with teams fielding a basic youth team in order to fulfill their obligation. I believe City v Plzen is one.
In Lopes, Bossaerts, Pozo and Fofana, City have players central to the youth set up of their respective nations (portugal, belgium, spain and france). Through the City EDS these players have also improved as a unit. Whereas Plzen have barely a handful of Czech u19 internationals, and a lot of 16 year olds.
Last season's nextgen through up surprises as markets are hugely biased to the success of their senior team. Chelsea beat Barca 2-0 away for exmple. So this is a potentially lucrative set of fixtures to bet on given the right amount of research.
Contentious format as UEFA spotted the success of Nextgen and have produced their own tournament. Instead of successful academies being invited to compete, it is now mandatory for teams in the champions league.Which means last year's winners Aston Vi
There's not enough liquidity yet to judge the prices at the moment. But outside bets today would be be:
1) Leverkusen, who are top of their u19s regional league. Whereas United are purely making up the numbers as their team are "taken from two sides – the Under-21s and the Under-18s," explained Academy coach Paul McGuinness to ManUtd.com. Neither team competed in Nextgen.
2) CSKA. Bayern also didn't compete in Nextgen and are mid-table in their u19 regional league. CSKA have kept hold of a couple of players who did well in last year's Nextgen. Where they beat Chelsea and Molde away, and Ajax and PSV at home. So expect them to be very strong in Russia. This group of CSKA players are pretty much the Russia u17 squad from two years ago.
There's not enough liquidity yet to judge the prices at the moment. But outside bets today would be be: 1) Leverkusen, who are top of their u19s regional league. Whereas United are purely making up the numbers as their team are "taken from two sides
Didn't have the squad of players Wasn't part of their team development plan Dubious about the credibility of Nextgen Couldn't afford to supplement a new competition (perhaps)
Celtic, Bilbao, Tottenham, Wolfsburg, even Rosenborg have all performed well at Nextgen and the UEFA Youth League is a bitter blow to the development of their youngsters.
Real Madrid, Dortmund, Napoli, Athletic Madrid are just some of the big names who have no recognised u19 squad to have previously competed at European level.
Good article here > http://www.blueprintforfootball.com/2013/09/nextgen-series-loss-is-big-blow-...
Any number of reasons:Didn't have the squad of playersWasn't part of their team development planDubious about the credibility of NextgenCouldn't afford to supplement a new competition (perhaps)Celtic, Bilbao, Tottenham, Wolfsburg, even Rosenborg have
Although Leverkusen didn't get over the line I made a healthy proft laying Man Utd before kick-off, again at 2-0, and then greening out when Leverkusen went 3-2 up.
Today's picks:
1) Porto. Tough call as both Vienna and Porto have never competed in Nextgen, both sets of players compete in their team's reserves and both have several players capped at International level. Porto's reserves perform consistently well in the second tier, whereas Vienna sit middle table in the third. Porto's U19 ran away with their league last season, and are top this year.
2) Chelsea. Basel, like most Swiss junior football, aren't to be underestimated and could probably score or take the lead in this match. However, Chelsea excelled in Nextgen (reaching the final and beating Barca away) and have influential players like Fesuz and Ake.
Outside bet:
1) Zenit. Another very strong youth set-up which produced several players for Russia's U17 Euro championship winning team this summer. You'd expect Athletico to have a strong youth set-up, though only two appear to have represented Spain.
Although Leverkusen didn't get over the line I made a healthy proft laying Man Utd before kick-off, again at 2-0, and then greening out when Leverkusen went 3-2 up.Today's picks:1) Porto. Tough call as both Vienna and Porto have never competed in Nex
What's going on in the Napoli v Dortmund game? Had this done as a score draw. Dortmund down to 9 men, and 5 yellows for Napoli... Not even half-time yet!
What's going on in the Napoli v Dortmund game? Had this done as a score draw. Dortmund down to 9 men, and 5 yellows for Napoli... Not even half-time yet!