Frankfurt breathes a sigh of relief
©IMAGO
Borussia Dortmund’s U19s clinched their fourth victory in the Youth League in the sixth and final game of the league phase and reached the round of 16, where the juniors of 1. FC Köln also made it. Eintracht Frankfurt’s youngsters still had to tremble after the defeat in Barcelona, but – like Bayer Leverkusen – they also have the ticket for the next round in their pockets. From a German perspective, only FC Bayern failed in the league phase. Meanwhile, BVB scored a historic goal late in the game.
Thanks to a 4-0 win against Bodø/Glimt with goals from Justin Hoy (11th), Nick Cherny (43rd), Samuele Inácio (68th) and Hamzath Mohamadou (89th), BVB finished the league phase with twelve points in twelfth place in the table. Mohamadou, who is only 14 years old, is the second-youngest goalscorer ever in the competition, pushing former Dortmund player Youssoufa Moukoko into third place. Last year, the youngest Youth League player in history was Arsenal’s Max Dowman, who was ten days younger then than Mohamadou is today (to the statistics of the youngest Youth League goalscorers).
Places 7 to 16 in the league phase, in which the juniors of the current Champions League teams competed – including BVB – will now face the U19 national champions, who played their own knockout round at the same time. In this so-called master’s path, 1. FC Köln won the second leg against the Midtjylland U19s 4-1 away on Wednesday. Double packer Fynn Schenten (25th/65th) as well as Kristiyan Irmiev (50th) and Lennard Völp (82nd) scored the goals for the billy goats. Malik Pimpong (48th) had equalized for the Danish representative.
Places 17 to 22 in the league phase will each be assigned to a team from the top 6 in the table in the draw next Friday. FC Chelsea and Real Madrid could be waiting for Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt. The SGE had lost the last league game against Barcelona 3-4, so was dependent on help on Wednesday. Since Villarreal won 2-0 against Copenhagen, Eintracht remains in 21st place. The lowest place that entitles them to advance (22nd) is occupied by Olympique Marseille, who moved past Copenhagen by one goal thanks to a 4-1 win at Union SG (to the table).