Wayne Burnett sees Wednesday’s match against Real Betis in Spain as another exciting test for our young players.
Our Academy has made the trip to Seville to take on the reigning Spanish Under-19 champions in our first knockout game in this season’s UEFA Youth League (kick-off 5pm UK time, 6pm local time in Spain).
With the competition now splitting off into its own standalone knockout pathway and no longer mirroring clubs’ fixtures in the senior Champions League, there’s a lot at stake in the round of 32 clash, with coach Wayne eager to see how his young charges fare.
“The boys are excited, they’re relishing the opportunity to go and play and we’re certainly looking forward to it,” he said after training at Real Betis’ Academy facility, Ciudad Deportiva Rafael Gordillo, on Tuesday.
“These European games, I think they’re essential. It gives us the opportunity to play best-v-best and, you know, coming and playing Europe’s best teams gives us another opportunity to gauge where our players are at.
“Real Betis are Spanish champions at this level, so they’re obviously a very good team with some very good players. I think it will be a good game with some very exciting players on show but as I keep emphasising, they’re going to have some good players, but so have we. It will certainly be a game of high quality.”
With a mixture of Under-21, Under-18 and Under-16 players in the squad, Wayne has been pleased with how the group has acclimatised since touching down in Spain.
“It’s important for us to come out and familiarise ourselves with the surroundings,” he said. “We’ve done that in each game that we’ve played in this competition, so we’ve just tried to keep consistent with that. As I said, it’s an opportunity for our players to play against some of the best players in Europe. We’ve done a lot of preparation, the players are fully understanding of what’s required and we’re certainly looking forward to the game.”
Supporters will be able to watch the match live in the UK on TNT Sports 4, or online via UEFA TV.