Wilkinson hails City's Euro fighters | OneFootball

Lead coach Ben Wilkinson hailed the fighting spirit of City’s Under-19s after a dramatic UEFA Youth League 5-4 penalty shoot-out win in Wednesday's Round of 32 tie away at FC Midtjylland.

In what was an action-packed and dramatic contest in Denmark, the City youngsters twice fought back from falling behind and also being reduced to 10-men after Charlie Gray picked up a second yellow card.

First Lakyle Samuel and then substitute Matty Warhurst stuck to tie the game at 2-2 after 90 minutes and send the contest into the drama of a penalty shoot-out.

Goalkeeper Oliver Whatmuff proved the hero, first saving  Midtjylland's third penalty before then converting the crucial final penalty himself to seal a 5-4 shoot-out win and so send City into Friday’s Round of 16 draw.

For Wilkinson it was just reward for the endeavour and character shown by his squad both over a roller-coaster 90 minutes and that subsequent penalty shoot-out.

“I’m really pleased in terms of the sort of spirit we showed,” Wilkinson reflected.

“I think as a performance overhaul we were probably quite disappointed with the first half, but were much, much better in the second half in terms of the way we approached the game and our mentality and mindset.

“That was really pleasing.

“When you go down to 10 men, you know it will be difficult and then you concede straight away to make it 2-1 for them but between that minute and the end of the game, we probably had more attacking threat than the opposition.

“So that was pleasing in terms of seeing the boys react in a positive manner and try to still go and win the game.

“In terms of the shoot-out, obviously you can prepare for penalties and it's a topic we've spoken about over the last two or three years when we get to these games.

“I'm a believer that it's not just luck, I think you can prepare for them. And the players need to have processes and strategies when they take a penalty like you do with anything else.

“So, it was a case of falling back on your individual process but it's difficult as a coach because obviously you feel like you don't have much control over the outcome.

“But I do know we've got some top penalty takers and Ollie as a goalkeeper I think really stands up in those moments.”

City’s reward is a place in Friday’s Round of 16 draw where we will learn the identity of our next opponents.

And irrespective of who that will be, for Wilkinson it promises to be another occasion to both savour and learn.

“It should be good. I think for it will be another moment for us to learn about the players in a really good arena," Ben added.

“We learnt a lot today, both positive and negative, but it's nice to have another game to kind of see if we can take the learnings from this game so.

“They are great games to be involved in and they're some of the best games in our calendar, so to have another one is really pleasing.

“Hopefully we can get some more momentum in this competition and see where it takes us.”