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Tonight will see the end of what has been another impressive season at the Chelsea FC Academy. Not only have they made it to this final tonight, but they had also made it to the final of the NextGen Series which was a Under19′s Champions League style competition with Europe’s elite clubs.
Chelsea have been begun to dominate this competition, having won it last year and in 2010, and in between those years making it to the semi finals only to be knocked out by eventual winners Manchester United. The football that is on display by the Chelsea academy is of the highest quality and will certainly entertain today.
The final of the FA Youth cup is unusually a two legged affair, tonight is the second leg to be played at Stamford Bridge and the game currently stands at 1 – 0 to Norwich. The first leg at Carrow Road was dominated by the Chelsea youngsters who were unable to put away the chances that were presented to them on the night. Islam Feruz who is usually so lethal in front of goal missed a few very good chances to put Chelsea in the driving seat, and in the end, it was a penalty to Norwich in the final minutes of the game, which decided the tie. Highlights of the first leg of the final can be seen here:
So what can we expect from tonight’s game? Norwich will look to sit back and make it hard for us and hit Chelesea on the counter. This team can thrive under pressure though and I would expect them to really be up for it.
There will have to be decisions made regarding the starting eleven with Adam Nditi and Andreas Christensen seemingly fully fit and will be experienced options for the full back roles. In the midfield, there are options too with John Swift having impressed when brought on and Charlie Colkett also being in good form. However Viveash may decide to bring Boga back into the middle and either push Baker out wide or bring in Connor Hunte who has also had some good performances this season. I assume that Ake will be available to play tonight even though he is likely to be involved with the first team for Wednesday but we will have to wait and see on that one.
To add to the spectacle, there is a big crowd expected; there were 20 thousand people in at Norwich, and while we may not get that many in Stamford Bridge, it won’t be far off. Norwich themselves are expected to bring over two thousand.
