Southampton: Saints’ U23s advance in Premier League International Cup

Southampton’s Under-23s are through to the Quarter-Finals of the Premier League International Cup after beating West Ham 3-0 last night.

Two goals in two first-half minutes from Saints forwards Tyreke Johnson and Marcus Barnes put them on track for victory, whilst a second-half own-goal from visiting keeper Nathan Trott completed the scoring.

The result saw the Saints youngsters end their group-stage campaign unbeaten after a 1-0 win and a 1-1 draw against Dinamo Zagreb and Porto respectively.

Their group was the first one to be completed in the competition and they will have to wait to see which other teams qualify to find their potential opponents.

Villarreal are the only other side to have confirmed their advance to the knockout stages so far and they won the competition back in 2015/16.

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Each group in the competition contains two English Category A academy sides and two European clubs, with the aim of exposing young English players to the styles of play from the continent.

Six group winners advance to the knockout stages, whilst the two best runners-up also go through to the last-eight.

The Saints youngsters will be keen to impress currently with new first-team manager Ralph Hasenhuttl recently installed and showing a strong interest in promoting academy products to his senior squad.

The Austrian was watching the game at Staplewood last night and will have been impressed with what he saw.

Whilst some youth products have found it difficult to make it into first-team squads over the last two seasons, some positive signs have emerged recently.

Both Michael Obafemi and Yan Valery made their first starts for Saints against Manchester United two weeks ago and showed the enthusiasm they can bring.

There are currently many youth products out on-loan at other clubs with Jake Hesketh, Harrison Reed, Sam McQueen and Josh Sims gaining first-team experience in the Football League.