Under-19’s manager Steven Gerrard was delighted with our youth teams performance after they dominated Manchester United to record a 2-0 win in the UEFA Youth League. Ben Woodburn opened the scoring via a header after Neco Williams delivered a cross.
The win means that our young guns will now face off against Manchester City in the quarterfinals after the Citizens defeated Inter Milan via a penalty shootout on Tuesday. With 13 minutes remaining, Rafael Camacho secured the victory for us as he struck a shot from 25-yards out.
After the game, U19 coach Steven Gerrard seemed delighted. He said (as quoted by Mirror),
“All in all I think we have dominated them, dominated Manchester United today, and we have some very young players in the team so that was the pleasing thing for me.
“We killed them for 35 minutes and we should have got that second goal and we could have made the second half a lot more easy for ourselves.
“But Rafa coming on and creating that bit of magic certainly helped the team breathe towards the end of the game because we knew it was going to get tough.”
“Coming up against an old (England) team-mate of mine, Nicky Butt, and the big rivalry which has gone on for many years makes the tie more juicy and there is a bit more edge and pressure around it,” added Gerrard.
“But that is why I am sitting here because I want that challenge. The reason I want that challenge is because I can’t go and find it myself as a player.”
The closest that United’s U-19 team, managed by Nicky Butt came to scoring was when Tahith Chong struck a shot against the crossbar. Butt admitted that his side were the second best.
“It was disappointing to go out, it was a good competition to stay in,” Butt said. “In the first half we were nowhere near it. They were a lot better than us, first to the ball, first to the second balls.
“We were too nice in the first half and we did not put too many challenges in. They won all the 50/50s and it was unacceptable. I told them that at half-time.
I am confident that the youth stars will beat Manchester City and go all the way to win the UEFA Youth League. They certainly seem capable of doing so.
