U19s need a victory against Manchester City | OneFootball

The Borussia U19s' hopes of reaching the UEFA Youth League play-off round are still alive – all the more so after their 2-0 win against Sevilla. If they are to go into their winner-takes-all battle for second spot in Copenhagen on 2 November with a chance, coach Mike Tullberg's charges will need a home win over Manchester City at the Brackel Youth Performance Centre (25/10 at 16:00 CET).

With four matches played, the English outfit top the group with 10 points ahead of Copenhagen (7), BVB (4) and Sevilla (1). "We will of course do everything in our power to preserve this chance," Tullberg declared boldly. The Black & Yellows led 2-1 up until the 90th minute of the reverse fixture in England thanks to goals from Vasco Walz and Julian Rijkhoff. But two individual errors in stoppage time denied them a surprise victory at the Academy Stadium.

"That might have been the best performance from a BVB team in the UEFA Youth League," said Mike Tullberg, as he reflected fondly upon an intensive and action-packed encounter. The fact that they went toe-to-toe with the heavy favourites in Manchester ("We'd perhaps win two out of 10 games against City") is a positive omen for captain Nnamdi Collins & Co. They will go into the return fixture with a similar strategy and an intelligent game plan: be alert from the first whistle, contest the challenges with courage, match the tempo and consistently trouble a Citizens defence that often plays with a high line. "Only with an outstanding team performance, with lots of heart and passion, can we compete with this extraordinarily high quality-opponent, who even have senior internationals in their ranks," commented Tullberg.

Following the recent wobble by the U19s, who were surprisingly eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by FC St. Pauli, the players have been able to take a breather and recover from an intense first few weeks of the season in which they were in almost constant action. In terms of personnel, Mike Tullberg has cast doubt over the availability of several players who have not been able to take part in every training session due to illness. In addition, the injured Abdoulaye Kamara and Prince Aning will miss out. Silas Ostrzinski, Lion Semic and Göktan Gürpüz from the U23s will reinforce the squad. Ondrej Berka from Czechia is the match referee. (wiwi)