Southampton: Saints U23s learn opponents for 2 competitions
By Marc Walker
Southampton’s U23s side have learnt who their opponents will be for both the 2018/19 Checkatrade Trophy and the Premier League International Cup.
Three senior teams will play Southampton’s second-string in the Checkatrade Trophy, and those will be Cambridge United – who also clashed with Saints last season -, Colchester United and Southend United.
2018/19 will be the first season that the U23s will play in the Premier League International Cup, where they will play in a competition with European opponents.
They have been placed in a tough group with youth sides from fellow English club West Ham, Dinamo Zagreb and 2017/18 champions Porto.
The side are managed by both Radhi Jaidi and Martin Hunter, and played in the Checkatrade Trophy last season. They managed a win, a loss and a draw against Cambridge United, Peterborough United and Northampton Town.
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Although it has been renamed and revamped, Saints have good history in the EFL Trophy having won the competition at Wembley in the 2009/10 season in front of 40,000 of the club’s fans.
The current format sees 16 groups of four teams take part, with eight made up of teams from the South and eight from the North.
16 U21 teams from Premier League and Championship clubs were invited to take part and join the 48 sides from League One and League Two, with first and second place in each group progressing to the next stage.
Six groups of four teams make up the Premier League International Cup, with 12 English sides joined by 12 of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica all have teams competing in this years tournament.
Group winners and the two best finishing second-placed teams progress to the quarter-finals.
Both competitions provide highly-competitive environments in which to play and the Checkatrade Trophy will put Saints’ youngsters up against senior players too.
After a lack of youth players breaking into the first-team at St Mary’s, they certainly have a platform to impress from in this upcoming campaign.