UYL PREVIEW: COMING TOGETHER

At the Colvoray Stadium in Nyon this afternoon, in the shadow of the Alps and on the banks of Lake Geneva, Chelsea Under-19s take on their counterparts from Barcelona in the UEFA Youth League final, with the winners crowned kings of Europe at their age group.

The Blues were penalty shootout winners against FC Porto in the semi-final on Friday, while Barcelona triumphed 5-4 at the end of a thrilling encounter with Manchester City. It, therefore, pits two of the three UEFA Youth League winners against each other in 2018 final, our first meeting with the Catalan youngsters since a last-16 tie in the NextGen Series five years ago.

‘It was a tough game, very tactical, which we knew before,’ says manager Joe Edwards, reflecting back on Friday’s victory over Porto. ‘We’ve been playing a lot this season with a back three, which can become a back five when you don’t have the ball, and Porto set up in a very similar way, so the game became a bit of a stalemate tactically. It became very cagey, which affected the players slightly, but I think you expect that as well.

‘We sat in a UEFA talk on Saturday where it was explained that this tournament was not set out to be a red carpet for the stars. I’m a big advocate of that. I think when you get to this stage, the team is more important than anything; our performance against Porto was a great demonstration of that.

‘We had serious questions asked of us and we needed to dig ourselves out of a difficult situation. There weren’t many individuals that stood out with star performances but as a team, we really had to come together, react and fight, which the boys did fantastically.

‘We’ve spoken throughout this season about how a big mark of the team is how you cope with the setbacks and, in these big games, you’re obviously more likely to face those difficult moments. To be a goal ahead and then pinned back to go 2-1 down was a big test of our character so when you get through that and then go through on penalties, mentally that’s a big boost for us.’

After winning this competition in 2015 and 2016, while also triumphing in four consecutive FA Youth Cup finals at the Under-18s age group, the group’s character is often cited as a key strength that can make a significant difference. It fits with the Academy’s philosophy of developing players not just technically, tactically and physically, but also equipping them with the mental tools to step up in the big moments.

‘We’re very lucky that we have a programme back at our Academy where from a young age we try to expose our boys to tournaments all over Europe,’ continues Edwards. ‘We have strong players at every age group so playing in semi-finals and finals is the norm for a lot of our players. We actually reflected on that in the final chat we had before the semi-final.

‘You have some moments that go against you but it’s about mentality, character and teamwork, and we have a lot of players in this group who have the experience of facing those difficult situations and coming out on top. So although they might have shown some body language that was disappointed for a minute or so [after going 2-1 down against Porto], there’s an element of composure and calm in our players that we know we’re never out of a game until the final whistle.’

The unique format of the UEFA Youth League competition means the final follows three days after two evenly-matched semi-finals, therefore our youngsters have remained in Nyon this weekend preparing carefully for their meeting with the Spaniards. While the quick turnaround presents challenges to Edwards and his staff on the training field, the manager believes there are also positives.

‘The work you’re able to do on the training pitch is limited because you want the players to recover physically as best they can,’ he explains. ‘That just means we have to maximize our time in the classroom and with our use of video analysis to get clued up on Barcelona as quickly as we can.

‘As a staff, we obviously prepared for that eventuality – we came out to Nyon with a lot of footage and some reports already pre-prepared on the other three teams out here so we’ve used our time this weekend to give the players that information and give our strategy for the game some support.

You have moments that go against you but it’s about mentality, character and teamwork. We have a lot of players in this group who have the experience of facing those difficult situations and coming out on top.

‘It’s not ideal that you don’t get a lot of time to recover but it’s also quite good to be away with the boys where all their focus is on this. We’ve been able to control their social time and we’ve seen first-hand they’ve spent a lot of time resting and spent a lot of time together as a team. Hopefully, that real positive feeling among the group we saw after the shootout on Friday is still hanging around and puts us in a good frame of mind for the final.’

After recovering from the drama of Friday’s penalty shootout victory, Edwards moved from the dugout to the stand to watch the second semi-final, a game he felt was entertaining but perhaps not the best representative of a Barcelona team who have been defensively resilient throughout the competition.

‘It was a strange game because it became a real goal-fest and that isn’t really what you should expect from Barcelona games. While it was a great game to watch for the neutral, we will focus on their track record throughout the competition, where they only conceded one goal prior to the semi-finals having played against teams like Sporting, Juventus and PSG.

‘They have a lot of technical players as you’d expect, every player is comfortable to go and receive the ball anywhere so they’ll have a lot of possession. They have a lot of skill and creativity around the box so we know we’re facing what we should be facing in the final of a European competition and that’s a really good team with a lot of top players.’

The UEFA Youth League final takes place at the Colvoray Stadium in Nyon this afternoon (Monday), kick-off 4pm UK time. It will be shown live on BT Sport and then repeated in full on Chelsea TV at 11pm tonight.