UEFA YOUTH LEAGUE: Dynamo Kyiv v FC Barcelona

It’s not only the FC Barcelona senior team who have a crunch game in Ukraine today. It’s also a biggie against Dynamo Kyiv for the U19s in the UEFA Youth League, which kicks off at the Valeryi Lobanovksi Stadium at 3.00pm CEST.

In a curious reverse of the situation for the first teams, in the Youth League it’s Dynamo who top the group with 7 points, while Bayern have yet to register any points. Benfica are currently second with 6 points and Barça have 4.

The 0-0 draw between Barça and Dynamo at the Estadi Johan Cruyff a fortnight saw the Ukrainians drop points for the first time, but Barça really need to get something out of this game too in order not to be depending on other results going their way on the last two days.

There will be cold temperatures, and probably some fog and rain too to cope with in what promises to be the toughest test of the season for the side now coached by Oscar Lopez after Sergi Barjuan took over senior team duties.

“We need to know how to mature the game against a team that has certain aspects that we can make use of to control the game” he said in his pregame conference.

“It will be a difficult” added player Ilias Akhomach. It’ll be very physical, but if we play our game and keep the ball then we’ll have our chances.”

López is travelling with the following squad of 19 players: Arnau Rafús, Miki Juanola, Diego Almeida, Arnau Casas, Chadi Riad, Àlex Valle, Marc Casadó, Jorge Alastuey, Aleix garrido, Txus Alba, Arnau Solà, Ilias Akhomach, Fabián Luzzi, Juanda, Estanis Pedrola, Mamadou Saidou, Víctor Barberá, Astralaga and Antonio Gómez.