Patrick Vieira’s Manchester City side lost out on their 100% record in this season’s UEFA Youth League after Sevilla held the Blues to a 1-1 draw at the Academy Stadium.
Thierry Ambrose grabbed the opener for the young sky blues, bundling home in the first half from a deep Garcia free-kick.
But City, though impressive in many aspects, could only claim a point following Miguel Martin’s late strike.
The opening exchanges were fairly quiet, though City were the side doing most of the probing – finding some joy in and around the Sevilla penalty area.
Ambrose had the first sight of goal, lashing wide when the ball fell kindly to him inside the area. The Frenchman ought to have buried such a chance.
But the Auxerre academy product had a lot more fortune when his next chance arrived. Sevilla keeper Juan Soriano failed to claim a deep cross from Aleix Garcia and Ambrose pounced for the opener – the ball appearing to come off the striker’s chest upon its route into the net.
City, without a number of players due to a mixture of first-team and U17 World Cup commitments, controlled the majority of proceedings but were guilty of spurning a number of chances in attack.
Manu Garcia and Patrick Roberts are considered two of the club’s most promising prospects and the two tormented Sevilla all night. One on occasion, Garcia slipped in Roberts with a perfectly weighted pass but the summer signing curled wide when one-on-one with Soriano.
Ambrose had two chances in quick succession to add to his tally but took neither. First he was thwarted by Juan Soriano at the far post before heading wide when picked out wonderfully by full-back Duhaney.
That came back to bite the blues as ten minutes from the end Sevilla drew level. Substitute Miguel Martin drifted in behind the City defence and rolled home past Daniel Grimshaw.
The result means that both sides are tied on 7 points, with City’s marginally superior goal difference keeping Vieira and his troops at the top in Group D.
Teams:
City:
Grimshaw, Oliver, Maffeo, Adarabioyo, Duhaney, Bryan, A.Garcia, M.Garcia, Roberts, Ambrose, Nemane.
Sevilla:
Juan Soriano, Juanmi, Eliseo, Amo, Cera, Genaro, Gonzalo, Brice, Sanchez, Chuma, Colmenero.
