UEFA Youth League quarter-finals: Sporting through; Milan-Atlético, AZ-Madrid, Dortmund-Hajduk to come | UEFA Youth League
Sporting CP become the first team to advance to the UEFA Youth League finals in April at the Colovray Stadium in Nyon, Switzerland after beating Liverpool with three games to go, all of which will be streamed on UEFA.tv.
It will be a semi-final debut for Sporting and at least one more is guaranteed, while Real Madrid are the only former champions remaining. Three of the competitors had never made it to the quarterfinals before.
All games are one-offs and if the score is even after 90 minutes it goes straight to penalties.
Tuesday March 14th
A goal from Rodrigo Ribeiro in front of several veteran players and Portugal’s new coach Roberto Martínez sees Sporting through to the final for the first time. There was an early blow against Liverpool when key man Ben Doak was substituted early on with a head injury but the game remained tight.
Sporting broke through in the 65th minute, however, when Rodrigo Ribeiro masterfully controlled David Monteiro’s long pass and confidently scored his sixth goal of the season. Liverpool had their moments but for the third time they narrowly missed Nyon in the quarter-finals.
- Milan are in the quarterfinals for the first time.
- This is Atlético’s fifth appearance in the Round of 16; A year ago they reached the semi-finals for the first time with a 1-0 win in Dortmund. This season, Atlético’s Adrian Niño became the first player to score in all six Youth League group games and he also scored in the round of 16.
- These clubs met in the group stage last season; Atlético went down 1-1 away, won 3-0 at home and finished second while Milan were eliminated.
Wednesday March 15th
- AZ are in the first quarter-finals and are only the second Dutch club to go that far, after Ajax in 2015/16, 2016/17 (when they lost to Madrid) and 2019/20.
- 2019/20 champions Madrid are in a record-breaking seventh quarter-final and hope to finish in the last four for an unprecedented fifth time.
- Dortmund are in the quarter-finals for the second time in a row, having made it the first time 12 months ago when they lost 1-0 to Atlético at home in front of 19,300 spectators.
- Hajduk beat Manchester City and reached the first quarterfinals; They are the second Croatian club to reach this stage after Dinamo Zagreb in 2018/19 and 2019/20.
Guide Quarterfinals
- Madrid are aiming to join Barcelona and Chelsea as two-time champions.
- Atlético, who lost to Salzburg in the semifinals last season, are the only other contenders to have previously reached Nyon’s Final Four.
- Hajduk hopes to become the first Croatian team to reach the semifinals.
- After Anderlecht in 2015/16, eventual champions Salzburg in 2016/17 and Chelsea in 2018/19, AZ and Hajduk want to be the last teams to reach the finals from their home championship path.