Brief guide to the 2018 Youth League

What do Marco Rose's Salzburg, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Renato Sanches have in common? The answer is easy: they all have Youth League's participation in their cv. The UEFA competition dedicated to young players (this season played those born after January 1, 1999, and a maximum of three in 1998) has reached the last stage, so the final four will take place as usual close to the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, between 21 and 23 April.

The weekend menù

The fifth edition of the tournament that took the place of the experimental NextGen Series (yes, the one won by Inter of Stramaccioni, Longo, and Crisetig) was another growing season: primarily because thanks to the new formula 'double path' teams from 43 football associations have come into play. There are four squads that will compete for trophy dedicated to Lennart Johansson: Chelsea, Porto, Barcelona and Manchester City. Four completely different realities with very distinct peculiarities.

Semifinalists

The first semifinal scheduled at Colovray Stadium will be Chelsea vs Porto: the most titled team of the competition (the Blues have already won in 2015 and 2016), against one of the surprises of this tournament. If Chelsea has for many years set the development of the youth sector as a club's priority, then using a lot the prospects of its academy (think of the progress of Christensen); while looking at its route, Porto have to thanks the 'fertility' of the youngsters born in 1999, capable of providing one talent after another. In the second semifinals, Barcelona, the most solid team, still unbeaten and able to suffer only one goal from September to today, will play against a team with a crazy offensive potential, that Manchester City who eliminated Inter only on penalties, after seriously risked going home prematurely.

The protagonists and the many absent

Rather than counting the protagonists, we have to tick the absentees, which in most cases are players who have improved so much over the months that the Youth League is now tight. Chelsea will miss the Welsh Ethan Ampadu, who has already made his debut in the Premier League, while the same-old class 2000 Callum Hudson-Odoi will be regularly available. Porto shows up with the defensive block of the Diogo's (Costa, Leite, and Queiros) but there will not be Dalot, the fullback who has been training for a long time with the first team and who also made his debut at Anfield. Man. Man City will not have in its squad two other products on the launchpad for months like Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz, while there's the goalkeeper Grimshaw: 6 penalties saved in the challenges won on penalties against Inter and Liverpool. Barça, in addition to the injured Oriol Busquets, must also think about the B formation that plays in Segunda Division: this is the reason for the absence, for example, of Carles Alena, Jorge Cuenca, and Monchu.

And the Italian teams?

Even in this edition, no Italians has managed to advance until the final stages: the authentic flop of Juventus in the group stage, followed by the eliminations of Naples and Rome, bypassed by Atletico Madrid only because of the direct clashes. Reduced from the 'national route', Inter coached by Vecchi is the team that has been able to go farther: after defeating Dinamo Kiev, Esbjerg and Spartak Moscow, the Nerazzurri have surrendered, as we said, only following a dramatic series of penalties against Manchester City.

What kind of edition has it been?

The Youth League is a project that UEFA follows very closely, as stated several times by President Ceferin. Among the reasons for pride, the fact that, as well as the number of participants, has also increased the number of those who can then establish themselves in other European competitions: 340 youngsters have managed to make the big jump, remaining in the elite of European football. Thanks to the current rules, players are used to living the games almost like the 'cousins' of the major teams, a way to grow faster and break down the distances: the same opponents, the same away games, sometimes even the same locations. And so it happened that the Real Madrid under 19 took played in front of the 32 thousand fans of Krasnodar Stadium, the new attendance record of the competition. Speaking of the Krasnodar, Sunday, in addition to the winner, will also touch the best goleador, who almost certainly will not be a representative of the best four: will be the Russian bomber Ivan Ignatyev. Write down your name because of Youth League rarely wrong.