- Leicester City’s Under-18s meet Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday morning
- The pair face off in the U18 Premier League Cup quarter-final (11am kick-off)
- Adam Barradell says the squad are excited to still be involved in the competition
- The Foxes came out on top in the league fixture between the sides earlier this term
The young Foxes travel to meet the Seagulls at AMEX Elite Football Performance Centre in the quarter-final of the U18 Premier League Cup on Saturday morning (11am kick-off), after finishing with two wins from three to qualify from the group stage.
Convincingly triumphing over Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest in home fixtures, City will need to record their first away triumph of this season’s competition to progress into the last four stage.
However, having already defeated the south coast outfit 1-0 in U18 Premier League South this campaign, courtesy of Jack Butterfill’s strike, Leicester, who are on an 11-game unbeaten run across all formats, will head into the game high on confidence.
“We played Brighton earlier on in the season,” Barradell told LCFC.com earlier in the week. “It’ll be the same preparation for us. We’ll travel down the day before and it’s a really exciting game for the boys. Brighton is always a good challenge; we’ve had some good games with them.
“We played them in the semi-final of the U17 Premier League Cup last year too, so to play them in the quarter-final on Saturday will be exciting. It’s another real high-pressure game in terms of cup competition, which should put the boys in good stead going forward for when we play the Youth Cup quarter-final.”
That FA Youth Cup last eight tie will be away to Manchester United after the Red Devils’ 4-1 success against Everton in the previous round, while City are also going well in the league, sitting fourth and three points off top spot with two games in hand on the leaders.
Barradell believes it is a testament to the players’ hard work and quality to be competing on three fronts at this stage of the season and involved in the latter stages of two knockout competitions without it hampering their league form.
The coach commented: “The boys have done excellently to get where they are at the moment, but we’ve got there through the standards they’ve set, the training and the daily habits that they are forming. You’ve seen the benefits of that when they’ve gone up and played in the Under-23s - and played well.
“We want to go as far as we can. The aim will be to get through on Saturday and get through in the FA Youth Cup. Those are the standards we’ve set and those are the levels that we want to hit.”
All times GMT.