17 September 2024
This is it!
The 2024/2025 UEFA Youth League is set and ready to commence, and like the new-look UEFA Champions League, there will be several new features starting this season.
NEW FORMAT
The UEFA Executive Committee has approved a new structure for the UEFA Youth League over the past few months, starting with the 2024/2025 season, where the competition will adapt to the change in format of UEFA's ‘Senior’ club competitions and will thus include the 36 youth teams from clubs that qualified for the 2024/2025 UEFA Champions League group stage, as far as the ‘Champions League’ pathway is concerned. The ‘National Champions’ route, on the other hand, has been modified to include the national youth champions of all UEFA member associations. Previously participation was limited to the top 32 associations in the ranking, thus the new structure gives greater involvement to youth teams from around Europe.
PSV EINDHOVEN, JUVENTUS' FIRST OPPONENT
As with the Champions League, the most important international competition for youth clubs will also play out a different first phase compared to past year's: unlike the ‘classic’ group stage, in this edition the teams will play in a single ‘League Phase’ in which they will play six matches - three at home and three away - which will coincide with the first six matches scheduled for Coach Thiago Motta's first team.
The campaign of Francesco Magnanelli's Juventus Under-20 team will thus also start at home, with the Allianz Training Center in Vinovo hosting the challenge between the Bianconeri and PSV Eindhoven.
The Dutch come to Turin having played three official matches since the start of the season, one less than Juventus. PSV overcame Utrecht's Under-19 side in the first round of the national cup. In the league, they've earned one win - in the opener against Sparta Rotterdam - and suffered one defeat against Utrecht on the last matchday played on Saturday, 14 September.
