please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Hello and welcome to the official match thread for Wednesdayâs NextGen Series encounter between Sporting Lisbon & Liverpool. The game is scheduled to take place at Estadio Jose Alvalade on Wednesday 20th of February 2013 with a kick-off time of 7PM. LFCTV (Sky channel 429) will be showing the game. (Build-up begins at 6.30PM) Preview. Liverpoolâs Under 19âs travel to Portugal on Wednesday to take on Sporting Lisbonâs Under 19âs in the last 16 of the NextGen Series. Both sides have been able to navigate their way through the group stages and the encounter on Wednesday will be the third time the two sides have met in the last two seasons of the NextGen Series. Sporting Lisbon were in Group 4 whilst Liverpool were in Group 5. Sporting finished top of Group 4 with 12 points from 6 games. This consisted of four wins and two defeats. Those four wins included victories at Aston Villa & Celtic. However, there were defeats. One was a defeat to PSV Eindhoven and an astounding defeat to Aston Villa. Sporting had already beaten Aston Villa 3-1 at Villa Park but Villa certainly took their revenge with a 5-1 victory in Portugal. With Sporting having a strong pedigree in youth development and a strong reputation in this tournament, it was a surprising result to say the least. Despite that defeat, Sporting still finished top of Group four with 12 points which was two points ahead of Aston Villa who finished in 2nd place. Liverpool, on the other hand, found the group stages more difficult. Their first three games were all away from Merseyside with trips to Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund & Rosenborg to contend with. Those games didnât go to plan with a 3-2 defeat in Italy, a 2-1 defeat in Germany & a 3-0 loss in Norway. This meant that after three games, Liverpool had three defeats and -5 goal difference. Everyone associated with Liverpool had just about resigned themselves to exiting the tournament which would have been disappointing considering Liverpool went to the semi-finals in last seasonâs NextGen Series. However, things started to turn around when Liverpool had the home games at Langtree Park to play. A 4-1 victory over Rosenborg gave Liverpool revenge for the 3-0 loss in Norway in the last game and got Liverpool off the mark in the group. The Reds then beat Borussia Dortmund 3-0 with a brace from Conor Coady helping to secure the three points. Those goals were Coadyâs second and third goals of the NextGen Series and helped to underline the importance of Coady to the Liverpool side. This left Liverpool with six points from five games and meant that the Reds were four points behind Rosenborg & Inter Milan who were in 1st and 2nd place. Both sides had ten points and the same goal difference. (0) Both sides also had scored 10 goals and conceded 10 goals. Evenly matched there! However, there were positions in the last 16 for the top four teams who finished 3rd in the group. There were six groups and before the Inter Milan game kicked off, Liverpool were 5th in the positioning of the 3rd place teams. Only a victory would have been good enough for Liverpool to move into 4th place of the positioning of the 3rd place sides. Liverpool produced the goods though and braces from Conor Coady & Samed Yesil gave Liverpool a 4-1 victory. Marco Benassi got the Inter goal but it wasnât enough for Inter to get anything from the game and Liverpool qualified as one of the best placed 3rd position sides. Because Liverpool qualified as one of the best placed 3rd position sides, they were given a tie against a group winner and one of the group winners, as I have already mentioned, is Sporting Lisbon. The two sides met in the group stages of the tournament last season and Sporting showed their undoubted quality in both games. Sporting won 3-0 at Anfield in the first meeting of the two sides with Sporting Lisbon midfielder, Joao Carlos Teixeira, the star of the show. He got the first goal in that game and certainly left an impression on that game. Sporting also won the game in Portugal 5-1with Teixeira once again showing his talent. In fact, Liverpool were so impressed by the performances of Teixeira that they moved to sign the Portuguese youth international. They secured his signature in February 2012 for a fee believed to be around the £850,000 mark. As I have already mentioned, Conor Coady has been an important player for Liverpool in this tournament and if Liverpool are to progress past Sporting Lisbon, Liverpool will need Coady to produce a performance. The midfielder has five goals in this tournament thus far and is the joint to-scorer so far. Not too bad for a player many see as a defensive midfielder! Beyond Coady, Liverpool have a number of attacking players who can trouble the Sporting defence. The likes of Jordan Ibe & Krisztian Adorjan seem likely to be deployed just behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation and they have both played significant parts of Liverpoolâs campaign thus far and a good performance from them will give Liverpool the chance to qualify. For Sporting Lisbon, their 18-year old winger Carlos Manè seems likely to provide the threat to the Liverpool backline. Manè has two goals in the tournament so far and has provided Sporting with an attacking outlet that they have fully utilised. With Liverpool having some injury concerns at full-back, Manè could take advantage of this and create opportunities for the Sporting striker/strikers. So, an important game in prospect! Can Sporting beat Liverpool once again and progress to the quarter-finals? Or can Liverpool gain revenge for the defeats Sporting inflicted on them last season and qualify for the last eight? Youâll find out the answers to these questions, and more, on the official match thread on the Not606 Liverpool board. Do join in. (That includes the guests that read this thread. Sign up and get involved!) Injury News. Sporting Lisbon. No injury news currently recorded. Liverpool. Jakub Sokolik: Back Injury. Brad Smith: Knee Injury. Marc Pelosi: Leg Injury. Samed Yesil: ACL Knee Injury. Suspension News. Sporting Lisbon. No suspensions currently recorded. Liverpool. No suspensions currently recorded. Sporting Lisbon 4 - 0 Liverpool Goalscorers: Sporting Lisbon... Carlos Manè: 12th minute. Sporting Lisbon... Carlos Manè: 24th minute. Sporting Lisbon... Joao Palhinha: 70th minute. Sporting Lisbon... Wilson Janco: 90th minute. Sporting Lisbon: Meira - Riquicho Semedo Figueiredo Pinto - Palhinha Jancó Rosa - Martins Neto Mallmann SUBS: Lazaro Ie Medeiros Mário Esgaio Stojanovic Mané - Sporting Lisbon Substitution: João Mário comes off to be replaced by Wallyson Mallmann. (60th minute) Sporting Lisbon Substitution: Iuri Medeiros comes off to be replaced by Farley Rosa. (75th minute) Sporting Lisbon Substitution: Luka Stojanovic comes off to be replaced by Gelson Martins. (75th minute) Sporting Lisbon Substitution: Ricardo Esgaio comes off to be replaced by Wilson Jancó. (83rd minute) Sporting Lisbon Substitution: Carlos Mané comes off to be replaced by José Neto. (83rd minute) - Liverpool: Fulton - Baio Sama Jones McLaughlin - Roddan Kent - Ibe Trickett-Smith Peterson - Sinclair SUBS: Belford Maguire Lussey Brannagan Dunn Adorjan Ibe - Liverpool Substitution: Jack Dunn comes off to be replaced by Daniel Trickett-Smith. (76th minute) Liverpool Substitution: Krisztian Adorjan comes off to be replaced by Kristoffer Peterson. (83rd minute) Liverpool Substitution: Jordan Ibe comes off to be replaced by Jerome Sinclair. (83rd minute) Liverpool Substitution: Jordan Lussey comes off to be replaced by Ryan Kent. (91st minute) - YNWA.
Looks to be an important game, we've all heard about how good our youth is - now is their time to prove it on the international stage.
lets see, this is away and an experience but i think its a higher level than these boys are used to and they may well struggle.
Bump. Don't forget that this game takes place tomorrow evening! Will certainly be a good watch and it will be interesting to see if the Under 19's can get revenge on Sporting after the two heavy losses to them in last season's tournament.
Good thread Chris - haven't really kept up to date with the youth teams this year but might have to try and catch the game tomorrow (is it on LFC TV?) Seems like we have a good bunch of youngsters coming through but haven't really heard of any defenders that might come through and follow in the footsteps of Kelly/Wisdom/Robinson. Saying that, those 3 weren't really talked up too much when they were in the youth teams (apart from Wisdom I suppose) and they seemed to have moved ahead of the likes of Pacheco, Nemeth, Suso who were all talked up much more. Be nice to progress in this tournament and the more they play and gain experience against teams in other countries it can only be a good thing. Must remember though that at this level it's about player development rather than winning at all costs. Rather not win anything and get 1-2 players come through the youth set up every year
Certainly is IBWT. 7PM kick-off with build-up beginning at 6.30PM. Think the one defender I would keep an eye on is Ryan McLaughlin. Another right-back (We've got a few at the moment!) but i've been impressed with him for the Under 21's & in this NextGen Series and has even had a couple of call-ups to the Northern Ireland side! Had to pull out with injuries but seems highly-rated by both Liverpool and the international set-up over in Northern Ireland. Don't want to build him up too quickly but certainly looks good at the moment. The step-up to the senior side (If he is to move up) is a different proposition altogether of course... - Good point on the player development. Would love to see a few of the players from the Under 21 step up in the coming years but don't want to raise my hopes too highly! To be honest, I think we'll struggle tomorrow. Squad has been affected by injuries with the likes of Yesil & Pelosi already out and we don't seem to have a left-back available. (Robinson out on loan & Brad Smith is injured) Still voted for a Liverpool win though!
Ah yeah Ryan McLaughlin, forgot about him. Had a few games pre-season I seem to remember and didn't look too bad. Seem to be alright at developing right backs at the moment. Maybe with Carragher going and Skrtel seeming out of favour Kelly or Wisdom will get a chance to move infield next year giving McLoughlin a chance - think Flannagan wil be shown the door as don't think he's progressed enough since he played last year. Sporting seem like a decent team but losing 5-1 to Villa youth seems like a bit of a strange one - considering how young Villa's first team is, I dread to think how young their youth team is!? Is this not over 2 legs? Thought it would copy the Champ League format of League then 2 legged knock out football up until the final?
Think the team are going to need all players to perform. We really need to field a full strength team here or we will get no where. the u19s have been great at home, but useless away. If Suso plays and the likes of McLaughlin, Tex and Ibe play to their potential then we are in with a shout. Would be putting may money on Sporting though especially away!
I mentioned Aston Villa in my preview and they are the first side to secure a place in the quarter-finals. Travelled to Holland to take on Ajax and beat them 2-1! Those of you who followed the NextGen Series last season will remember Ajax tearing us apart in the semi-finals. Surprising result that. Aston Villa look like they might go far. Beaten Sporting Lisbon & Ajax so far and both of those sides have looked very good both last season and this season.
Wow. Cant believe any villa side beat that Ajax team that hammered us last year. If I was Paul lambert id drop the senios and start playing the u19s inn the prem...lol
can see us gettin battered tonite, we will have seriously weakened 11, a draw would be an excellent result
I've also got a bad feeling about this game... Game has to be decided tonight so we've got a massive task ahead of us. No Sokolik, Smith, Pelosi or Yesil. Leaves us very light at the back. (I can't think of a left-back that can play tonight!)
Haven't got any team news yet so I don't know. If he is eligible, he seems likely to be involved but i'm not sure if he is eligible due to his age.
