FA Youth Cup final recap: Manchester City v Leeds United - first team squad member starts, updates and analysis from the Etihad
Leeds United’s youngsters face a huge night at the Etihad Stadium tonight, taking on Manchester City’s under-18s in the final of the FA Youth Cup.
Leeds have made it to the competition’s final for the third time in the club’s history, 27 years on from beating Crystal Palace in the final of 1997. Four years earlier, the young Whites beat a Manchester United team that featured David Beckham, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs to lift the trophy in 1993.
Thirty one years on, the blue half of Manchester now stands in the way of a Whites club treble. City were drawn as the ‘home team’ for the final and sit three places and 20 points above Leeds in the under-18s Premier League north table. City also did the double over Leeds during the league campaign, recording 4-1 and 5-2 victories against Rob Etherington’s young side.
Here, upon landing at the Etihad, we will bring you all of the early team news and pre-match build-up to the 7pm kick-off before match updates and analysis.
Harry Gray, younger brother of Whites star Archie, will not feature this evening, the 15-year striker ruled out due to being too young as part of competition age boundaries. Whites boss Etherington has also revealed that the availability of 17-year-old midfielder Charlie Crew would depend on whether first team boss Daniel Farke needed him for Sunday’s Championship play-offs semi-final first leg at Norwich City.
The game is being streamed exclusively to FA Channels, shown on The FA Player, Emirates FA Cup X, YouTube and TikTok channels.