City careers being forged in Academy despite Euro cup defeat

CITY EDS coach Brian BarryMurphy saw ‘the seeds of some very important careers start to form’ in the defeat that saw the Under-19s eliminated from the UEFA Youth League.

City needed a victory at home to PSG to keep their qualification hopes alive but a young team was comfortably second-best across the 90 minutes, even if a late rally added a consolation to see the game end 3-1. The result leaves the young Blues with just five points from five games – six behind both PSG and Club Brugge – and they are winless in their last four in the competition.

With expectations across the academy of going deep in a tournament that pits the best European sides against each other just like the Champions League does, an early exit at the group stage is disappointing – even if the Blues have been hamstrung by an increasing list of players unavailable as the season has gone on. Liam Delap, Cole Palmer, James McAtee and Sam Edozie are among the first-team prospects that have all been missing for at least one game.

“It has been very tough, in terms of our players the injuries have been very significant and a lot of surgery, a lot of long term stuff. That has had a negative effect in terms of the results,” said Barry-Murphy.

“You can see that in two ways: as a key factor in exiting the group or you can say the lads who have played who are much younger have had a great experience and have learned from that and will be stronger for it next season. That’s the way I see it anyway.

“I’ve loved every moment of it and from the very start, with the expectations of the players, you could sense that. Whenever that comes to an end it’s very disappointing.

“We were speaking a lot about how important it was that we kept going right until the end. You can see the real seeds of some very important careers start to form in that situation. That will be the same in the next game against Leipzig, that will be a very important game for us.”