UEFA Youth League: U19s to take on Lazio

On 2nd or 3rd March, Borussia U19s will face Lazio in the first knock-out round of the UEFA Youth League. The draw took place in Nyon on Wednesday.

Borussia U19s were set to take on the same opponents as the first team in the group stage of the UEFA Youth League: Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, however, UEFA announced back in September that there would be no group stage this season. Instead, the 64 qualified teams enter the tournament in a straight knock-out format with ties played over just one leg.
 
The U19s will now face Lazio in the first knock-out round, scheduled for 2nd/3rd March, as dictated by the draw in Nyon on Wednesday. “It’s really nice for us to have a home tie against Lazio. We will put out a strong team and try to progress. Obviously we would also have liked a trip to Rome to enjoy some of that special Champions League atmosphere, but under the current circumstances it is probably better to have a home game,” said Roland Virkus, youth academy director for the Foals.
 
Borussia’s third time participating in the Youth League

The UEFA Youth League represents a big opportunity for Borussia’s youngsters. The Foals’ U19 side is taking part in the competition for the third time. 64 elite youth teams will battle it out in the tournament: the youth champions from the 32 highest-ranked nations according to UEFA coefficient score, and the youth teams of the 32 sides who qualified for the senior Champions League group stage. Those two groups of 32 form opposite branches of the tournament, and the 64 teams were then divided again so that each side of the draw took place from four groups of eight. Gladbach were in group four, where they could also have drawn Liverpool, Barcelona, Olympique Marseille, Lokomotiv Moscow, Dynamo Kiev or Ferencvaros. “The lads are happy that they are allowed to play and that they can test themselves at this level. Lazio is a really big club,” said Virkus.
 
The Foals can register 40 players for the competition, and the list will include players from the U23s and U19s as well as a few talented U17s. “We already have an idea of how our squad selection will look because we are following a clear plan. The problem that we have right now is that neither the U17s nor the U19s have any competitive matches at the moment,” sad Virkus. The Bundesliga-West is currently suspended at both U19 and U17 level due to the coronavirus pandemic. Only the U23s are currently playing football, with a few U19 players at least having the chance to collect playing time in the Regionalliga-West.