João Brandão to lead FC Porto in the Youth League | OneFootball

João Brandão, coach of FC Porto’s B team, will take charge of the Dragons’ under-19 side in the next edition of the UEFA Youth League. The decision is linked to the low average age of the reserve squad, whose group is around 20 years old.

A large part of the B team squad therefore meets the age criteria set by UEFA, which allow the use of players born on or after 1 January 2008. In the most recent match, against Penafiel, João Brandão had ten eligible players listed on the team sheet — Yoan Pereira, Chelmik, Bernardo Lima, Grannas, Mateus Mide, Domingo Muxito, Eduardo Ferreira, Gustavo Guera, Cardoso Varela and Duarte Cunha — with seven of them being used.

The regulations also allow the participation, in each match, of three players born after 1 January 2007, in other words, one year older. Since most of the players who will compete in the European competition work daily under João Brandão, FC Porto felt that the B team coach was the most suitable option rather than João José, who is in charge of the juniors. This is, moreover, a solution also adopted by other participating clubs. Hjalte Froholdt, Froholdt’s brother and an 18-year-old right-back who arrived this week, may also be used.

The Youth League league phase runs from 8 September to 9 December and follows the Champions League format, although it is limited to the first six matchdays. The fixtures will be the same in both competitions, with three matches at home and three away. The top 22 teams will advance to the round of 32, where they will be joined by the ten winners of the Champions Path.

At that stage, the blue-and-white side will face Manchester City, Betis, PSV, Napoli, Feyenoord and Liverpool. Slavia Prague and LASK Linz are the opponents of the senior team and will not cross paths with the juniors.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.