UEFA Youth League a great segue into senior football, says Lewis | OneFootball

City defender Rico Lewis says his time developing in the UEFA Youth League helped him prepare for his senior debut and minutes in the UEFA Champions League.

Aged 16, the Academy graduate made his first City outing in the Youth League way back in September 2021, playing the final few minutes in our 5-1 win over RB Leipzig.

Lewis would go on to make a total of six UYL appearances before making the step-up to Pep Guardiola’s side, being afforded his senior City debut just 11 months later.

In October 2022, the now 20-year-old made his UEFA Champions League debut, aged 17, but Lewis revealed how the experience of playing in the Youth League helped prepare him for those milestone moments.

“When you play in the [Academy] leagues when you’re younger, you play against English teams and even though every game is a big game, it’s nothing like PSG and Real Madrid and the big teams that you obviously watch on TV,” said Lewis.

“I think it helps with not getting too amped up about those big European games.”

As Lewis mentioned, City played Paris Saint-Germain in the group stage of the UEFA Youth League, making his full debut in the 1-1 draw with the French outfit before another UYL stalemate with Club Brugge.

Lewis went on to score his first – and only goal – in the competition in our 3-1 home defeat to PSG before ending the group stage on a high with a 1-0 win over RB Leipzig.

And it was evident that Lewis reflected fondly on his time developing his trade in the Youth League.

“The main thing I remember is playing against PSG away, that was one of my first games I played and obviously I was playing up a little bit so there was a lot of mixed emotions,” began Lewis.

“Obviously I was playing against people older than me but also playing in a tournament where you know most of the time you watch it [Champions League] on TV and it’s everything that comes with it.

“The different balls and everything, there’s a lot of emotion in it.

“But when it came down to the game it was just football. It was a really good game we had two red cards and we still managed to draw the game.

“Having older players in the team helped me and probably helped calm my nerves but I was nervous but I tried to use that as fuel to just work as hard as possible.

“It was a really good game and something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

“[When I scored in the reverse leg] I probably wasn’t as excited as I would have been normally because of the result of the game.

“I think Oscar [Bobb] passed me the ball and it was a nice goal and I was really happy but obviously in the heat of the moment you don’t really think about it until after but yeah it was really good.”

Now, our Under-19s face a similar tough task in our trip to Denmark and FC Midtjylland for Wednesday's Round of 32 single-leg tie.

And with a young squad at Ben Wilkinson’s disposal, Lewis offered some words of advice for those looking to follow the defender in a similar trajectory to senior football.

“I think the main thing is, it’s so easy to say from the outside, but just try to stay as calm as possible,” said Lewis.

“Don’t let the occasion take over how you want to think about the game and it really helps if you’ve got a clear mind and just think about the basics.

“The first few minutes is the basics of the game and then the game will turn into what it’s meant to be.

“Remain focused no matter what’s going on in the league or what’s going on in the game, it’s one game at a time.

“I think you can’t be looking too far forward and you can’t be looking too far behind as well on what you could have changed or what you’re going to do.

“It’s what you do in the moment. Stay positive and keep going.”