Arsenal take on Olympiakos looking to follow up an impressive win against Marseille with victory in Greece.
Tonight sees the start of a very busy 48 hours for English clubs competing in Europe’s premier youth football competition as Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City play in a week consisting of six NextGen Series clashes.
Focus starts on Arsenal who look to continue a positive start to the campaign in their inaugural away tie of the competition. Whilst they will be used to playing youth games at home very few will know the experience of travelling far and wide on the continent and rooming with team-mates in wondrous cities they will barely get a view of. Isaac Hayden has been documenting the experience well in his blog on the Arsenal official website.
As far as the game is concerned Arsenal have every right to feel confident after dominating Marseille in their opening fixture whilst their opponents Olympiakos were put to the sword by an impressive Athletic Bilbao side.
Arsenal will have to play in a much warmer and humid atmosphere in a stifling Athenian port suburb of Piraeus but are intent on returning with 3 points from Greece to give them a dominating start to the campaign.
Arsenal will be without Chuks Aneke who is enjoying a loan spell at Crewe but should otherwise rely on the steady performances of Yennaris, Gnabry, Akpom, Olsson and Bellerin to see them to victory tonight.
Here are some tweets from Arsenal lad’s currently in Greece ….
Martin Yves Angha @MartinYAngha
At the airport with the team @SergeGnabry @Nico_Yennaris@HectorBellerin @SeadHajrovic ! Flying to Greece for the@NextGenSeries !
Hector Bellerin @HectorBellerin
Off to Greece with the lads. Playing Olympiacos tomorrow@NextGenSeries .
Flying to Greece today with the squad for the @NextGenSeries game vs Olympiakos #buzzing
Anderlecht and Wolfsburg are also in action in the earlier game today whilst the other teams in the Arsenal’s group Marseille and Athletic Bilbao will clash.
Tomorrow is a historic day with NextGen showing their first ever live broadcast of Tottenham vs Barcelona at White Hart Lane. A large crowd is expected and a full match preview will be up tomorrow. Manchester City take on a dangerous Fenerbahce; City are still looking to earn their first ever NextGen point, while Molde take on CSKA Moscow.
Check back tomorrow for a preview of both Manchester City and Spurs big NextGen fixtures
image: © wonker
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