Academy Weekly: Wood's Dortmund preview

Tuesday 01 March 2022 09:11

Lead coach Neil Wood says Manchester United’s Under-19s have to embrace the challenge of coming up against a talented Borussia Dortmund team in Wednesday night’s UEFA Youth League last-16 clash.

The 20:00 GMT kick-off at Leigh Sports Village is being shown live on MUTV in the UK and Ireland.

“I’m excited for the game, just as much as the players are really,” Wood told us.

“These are the big games we want to play in, the elite games. The lads have done brilliantly to get to this stage, so we’re really excited and hoping there can be a good crowd to support us. It’s a great challenge against Borussia Dortmund, which is a fantastic football club.

“We’re hoping, for the players’ development, that they can play in front of a crowd and it can feel like a Champions League night.

“We hope fans come down to cheer them on and to see the young talents that we have here. The lads look forward to these games. The confidence between the two groups, the Under-18s and Under-23s, is high. As a coach, it’s good to go in with confidence. We feel prepared and we know it’s going to be a really hard game, but we know if we show what we can do, we can do well.”

UEFA Youth League: The story so far Video

UEFA Youth League: The story so far

United's U19s host Dortmund on Tuesday night in the UEFA Youth League last-16. Watch how they got here...

United secured a place in the last-16 by topping Group F of the UEFA Youth League before Christmas. This part of the competition exactly mirrors the senior Champions League at the group stages, so Wood’s side came up against Atalanta, Young Boys and Villarreal, and won five of our six matches.

“The first half of the season was really packed,” Wood recalled.

“We were almost on a two-game-a-week programme, playing at the weekend or on a Friday night and a midweek game in between, UEFA Youth League or the Papa John’s Trophy. It’s exciting and it’s difficult. You don’t have a lot of days to prepare.

“It’s a different atmosphere and experience, travelling away to Italy, Switzerland and Spain. We’ve had some really good performances and results.

“I think we grew as we went through the group. The first game away at Young Boys was really difficult, the Astroturf was really small and it was a really tough game. They [our players] ground out the 1-0 win.

“Obviously, we suffered at home against Villarreal [a 4-1 loss] but we knew we had a plan for them going away and we were confident going into the away leg against them. That sandwiched the two Atalanta games, where we had some great goals, and then the final game we changed the team a little bit, we had a few unavailable, and the young lads that came in were fantastic to win that game. We improved as the competition went on and to top the group was an added bonus for us.”

Supporters are welcome to attend the 8pm GMT kick-off at Leigh Sports Village, with free tickets available here. As stated earlier, fans can also watch the match live on MUTV in the UK and Ireland.

“We do what we always do, we prepare for the other team,” Wood explained.

“We’ll be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They’ll be a strong team, well coached, strong on the attack and we know we’ve got our work cut out.

“Aside from tactics and technical things, you have to enjoy these nights, the big nights, especially at this age group. They don’t play Borussia Dortmund very often so they have to embrace that and they have to look forward to these games.”

While the UEFA Youth League takes much of the attention this week, there has been plenty else going on at the club recently, including an FA Youth Cup victory, a win for Wood’s Under-23s side in Premier League 2 and plenty more. Here’s everything you need to know...

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Under-23s win at Derby

Although Alvaro Fernandez gave United a first-half lead at home to Derby County, lead coach Wood wasn’t impressed with his side’s display in the opening stages of a 5-2 victory.

“We made hard work of it for a period,” Wood said.

“I don’t think we were playing properly. We weren’t driving the tempo of the game.”

Fernandez’s goal was a good one, the Spanish full-back playing the ball into Zidane Iqbal, who returned it with a backheel. Fernandez drove onwards and shot initially before squeezing home the rebound.

“First half, we were not clinical enough, and it took us a while to get going in the second half,” Wood said.

Osazee Aghatise scored an equaliser out of nothing for the visitors but after Hannibal dispatched a a 63rd-minute penalty, won by Noam Emeran, United kicked on.

U23s highlights: United 5 Derby 2 Video

U23s highlights: United 5 Derby 2

See how Neil Wood's side fared in Friday evening's Premier League 2 fixture...

With two excellently weighted and accurate crosses, Fernandez picked out first Emeran and then Charlie Savage to assert United’s dominance with a 4-1 lead. Shola Shoretire finished well to make it five before a scrambled consolation goal in the 95th minute from Derby’s Bartosz Cybulski.

“It was much better in the second half,” Wood continued. “There were some good performances, some really good things that came out but we want to get better and play at a higher level and so we have to pick up with things we’re not pleased with.”

FA Youth Cup progress

United’s Under-18s came from behind once again to progress into the FA Youth Cup semi-finals. Like Everton in the fifth round, Leicester City took a first-half lead at Old Trafford, but Travis Binnion’s side dominated afterwards. Ex-Red Chris Popov scored for the Foxes, but Alejandro Garnacho levelled with a free-kick curler late in the first half.

After the break, United created several significant chances and should have scored earlier, but it instead took until the 89th minute to find a deserved winner. Garnacho controlled a wonderful pass from Kobbie Mainoo, one of the stand-out players on the night, and finished emphatically to earn victory.

FA Youth Cup: United 2 Leicester 1 Video

FA Youth Cup: United 2 Leicester 1

Watch how United Under-18s secured their place in tonight's FA Youth Cup semi-final...

“It’s always better to win the game as late as possible, with at least time on the clock for the opposition to come back,” Binnion said.

“Although we won it late, I thought we thoroughly deserved to win the game, I thought we should have put it to bed in the second half, we created a lot of chances. That’s something we’ll have to be better at. The pleasing thing was that we were on the ropes a little bit at 1-0 in the first 20 or 25 minutes and we showed good character to come back. We came back against Everton, we came back again tonight. It’s not something we want to do but when you can come back, find a way to take over the game like we did, it’s pleasing.”

United will now host Wolves in the FA Youth Cup semi-final at Old Trafford after the Black Country outfit beat Brighton & Hove Albion at Molineux on Saturday.

Academy graduate achievements

Tommy Rowe, who spent a year at United in his teens, scored a brace for Doncaster Rovers in a 2-2 draw against AFC Wimbledon. Also featuring in that game were fellow Academy graduates Ro-Shaun Williams, Aidan Barlow and Mipo Odubeko, as well as former trialist Joseph Olowu.

Anthony Elanga continues to make an impact in the United first team as he scored the all-important late equaliser in the Champions League draw at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Just a few months ago, he was playing in the UEFA Youth League, where focus turns this week for his former team-mates.

Academy excited for UEFA Youth League match Video

Academy excited for UEFA Youth League match

Our U19s will face Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Youth League and Nick Cox, Head of Academy, explains the excitement...

Loan watch

James Garner scored his third Championship goal of the season, Tahith Chong made his long-awaited return from injury and Ethan Laird made his debut for Bournemouth. For further details on all of those achievements, plus updates on all of our other loanees, check out this week’s comprehensive loan watch.

Coming up this week

UEFA Youth League last-16

Our Under-19s host Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Youth League last-16 at Leigh Sports Village. Kick-off is 20:00 GMT and supporters are encouraged to attend.

Find out how the players are feeling ahead of the game, what Head of Academy Nick Cox thinks of the clash and full details on the fixture here.

Under-18s weekend action

United host Man City in the Manchester mini-derby at Carrington on Saturday morning. Kick-off is at 11:00 GMT and the match is available to watch live on MUTV.

 

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