1. FC Cologne
Will the U19s face Milan or Liverpool next?
12/11/2025 – 12:47 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The U19s of 1. FC Köln remain in the UEFA Youth League thanks to a 4-1 win at FC Midtjylland. It is now clear what will happen next year.
The A-youth of the 1. FC Cologne won the Youth League against both Racing FC Union Luxemburg and Midtjylland. This means that FC is one of the ten teams that have successfully completed the championship route and will now face the clubs from the Champions League path in the knockout phase.
For the next round this means: Cologne will face one of the teams that ended up in places seven to 16 in the Champions League. The teams from the top six tiers and the teams between places 17 and 22 will be drawn separately; places 23 to 36 have already been eliminated.
In contrast to the home and away duels of the championship path, a single game now decides who progresses. The draw will take place on Friday at 3.30 p.m. in Nyon. A delegation from Cologne is unlikely to be present there. Academy director Markus Halfmann said: “I didn’t bother with it out of superstition. I don’t think we’ll go there, but it will also be exciting in front of the screen.”
One thing is already clear: Cologne has home advantage as a Meisterweg team. The game will be played on February 3rd or 4th. Potential opponents include some of Europe’s biggest youth teams, such as FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Atlético Madrid, Sporting Lisbon, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, Manchester City and Liverpool FC. Borussia Dortmund is also in this pot, but a duel between two German teams is out of the question.
This guarantees that Cologne will welcome a real top club at the beginning of February. “One or the other probably has preferences. Inter Milan or Manchester City perhaps,” explained Halfmann – and thus exactly met the taste of coach Stefan Ruthenbeck. “That would be my favorite,” he said with a smile. “That would be exciting. At home against Inter Milan – I would be curious to see if we would play in the Franz Kremer Stadium.”
It is still unclear whether the game will actually be played at Geißbockheim or moved to the Rheinenergiestadion. Halfmann said they would only make a final decision after the draw. Meanwhile, Ruthenbeck is simply looking forward to “a really big club” and another “big party” in Cologne.
Maybe the FC youngsters will even make it to the round of 16. Coach Ruthenbeck enthuses: “The boys can do anything” and continues, “We are extremely proud that we are having another game like this at such a level.” If you want to plan for the long term: The final round of the Youth League with semi-finals and finals will take place from April 17th to 20th at the Colovray sports center in Nyon.