Shakhtar U16 and U19 will play in a tournament in Spain
Monday, April 10, 2017
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From 11 to 16 April, Lloret de Mar (Catalonia, Spain) will host the International Mediterranean Cup 2017
Shakhtar Donetsk will be represented at the tournament by the Academy teams of U16 (players born in 2001) and U19 (born in 1999-2000). The competition will also be attended by Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Villarreal, Athletic Club, Espanyol and other clubs.
The first stage will involve a group tournament. Then top two teams in each quartet will continue to compete in the knockout stage, with the rest taking part in the ‘consolation’ round.
The games will have two halves of 25 minutes with a short break (3 minutes). In case of a tie in regular time, the winner will be decided by a penalty shootout.
In the group competition, Shakhtar U16 will meet with the American Pride Soccer Club, the Catalan Palamos CF and Vic Riuprimer REFO. Shakhtar U19 will compete against the local Caldes de Malavella, Kokumbo from Cote d'Ivoire and the British Buckswood Academy.
- As far as I know, the participants are quite diverse, - said the head coach of Shakhtar U19 Serhii Shyschenko. - The tournament will feature not only representatives of Europe, but also the clubs from other continents. It will be very interesting, let's see how our team will look at the international level.
The International Mediterranean Cup 2017 will receive 284 clubs from over 40 countries – about five thousand young players altogether.
- We are going there with just one goal – to win it. Such tournaments are important in the preparation of the boys for the following stages: U19, U21 and the first team, - said Shakhtar U16 Anatolii Skyrchuk. - Among the participants there are a lot of outfits from Catalonia, and they primarily look up to Barcelona and the corresponding performance quality. We are determined to demonstrate our maximum and show our football, after all we represent FC Shakhtar and the city of Donetsk. In Europe, they often conduct such short tournaments, in which you have to play two matches a day. Our guys are not familiar with that yet, so they understand that we must give our two hundred percent instead of one hundred.
