Barradell Proud Of Young Foxes’ Youth Cup Efforts
- A last-minute goal knocked Leicester City’s Under-18s out of the FA Youth Cup on Thursday
- Chris Popov had given the young Foxes a first-half lead in the quarter-final tie at Old Trafford
- Two Alejandro Garnacho goals swung the game in the hosts’ favour
- It was mixed emotions for coach Adam Barradell, who praised City’s performance in the 2-1 defeat
Thursday’s last-eight tie against the Red Devils looked to be going in City’s favour when Chris Popov handed the visitors the advantage after 30 minutes, though Alejandro Garnacho levelled matters ahead of the interval.
Unable to score a second goal while on top cost Leicester and Garnacho also netted the decisive blow with a minute of normal time remaining, ending Leicester’s long-standing 13-game unbeaten run and knocking the young Foxes youngsters out of the competition.
“I was really proud of the boys,” Barradell told LCFC.com following the game. “I thought they played with a real intensity, a real personality. I thought the start of the game and the first half we were excellent.
“We really put Manchester United under pressure; we had some really good spells. Just when we were on top, we just didn’t get that second goal that we possibly needed and them scoring just before half-time probably took the wind out of our sails really.
“I thought we started the second half well. Again, we had a couple of chances, but I felt the longer the game went on, they just grew into the game a little bit more and they caused us a few more problems with the individual quality that they had.
“It was a case of sticking to the game plan. We really pressed Man Utd and we had a lot of control in the first half and I just thought at times, in the second half, the game became too open for us and we didn’t have enough sustained pressure in their half which we had in the first half."
Just under 4,000 fans were in attendance at the Theatre of Dreams and Barradell believes the players coped well with the atmosphere, which showed in the way they started the game aggressively and on the front.
Able to bring in the likes of Ben Nelson, Sammy Braybrooke, Joe Wormleighton and Will Alves from the Under-23s side after all four started against Arsenal on Monday, their experience was useful to the younger members of the team.
He continued: “Ultimately, I thought there were some excellent individual performances. As a club, that’s what we want, and these experiences around not being overawed by the occasion at Old Trafford will certainly put the boys in good stead in their future development.
“We spoke about that before the game. We’d been on an excellent run of performances and results so, in the pre-match comments to the team, it was that we’ve got nothing to fear and, as we showed in the first half, we went toe-to-toe. At times, we were better and, at times, they were better.
“It was a really good game and I think the turnout from the fans at Old Trafford was really good. The support for the Academy from the other age groups and the staff was really good to see and a great occasion for the boys. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t quite get over the line.”