Youth Cup and Shield Finals Previews

Tonight sees the first legs of the culmination of a long, hard season of Youth Cup and Shield games for the four remaining teams, Bayern Munich and Juventus in the Youth Cup Final, and Flamengo and Sevilla in the Youth Shield Final. Second legs will be played on Wednesday 27 December, but here is a quick preview of the finals.

Youth Cup Final

It's not often that Munich giants Bayern are thought of as underdogs, but they disposed of a very disappointing Benfica team full of young talent in the semi-finals, and now face an equally good, if not better, Juventus youth team.

Not that Bayern don't have an excellent and steadily improving youth academy of their own:

Juve's youth looks simply too good, on paper, though. So good, in fact, that most of them are already in the Old Lady's senior squad:

And then there are those starlets out on loan:

Six of those players arrived during the season, just prior to the knockout rounds, taking some of the best players from their rivals, then-favourites Real Madrid, and Benfica.

It's a testament to Juve manager DP's dealings that the senior team now sit comfortably in fourth place in Division One, having seen the Madrid and Lisbon youth teams fall by the wayside. Managerless Madrid's seniors, meanwhile, languish in mid-table, while Benfica's first team are fighting a very real threat of relegation into Division Three.

Having said all of that, Bayern have won 9 of the last 10 meetings between these clubs, albeit all at senior level, but Juve will have to overcome that mental barrier, too.

Youth Shield Final

Referee Mohamed Benouza will earn some air miles refereeing both Youth Cup and Shield finals simultaneously, and the cool rain in Bavaria will undoubtedly alleviate the sweltering heat in Brazil during the first legs tonight.

In the Youth Shield semi-finals, Flamengo beat another Lisbon club, an improving Sporting, over two legs. Having won 2-0 in Portugal, Mark Phelps' all-Brazilian starlets kept Michael Hudson's lion cubs at arms length in the return leg to record a 1-1 draw, and ease into the final with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

David Senior's surprise package Sevilla finished off Rob Ryan's Napoli 2-0 in the second leg of their semi-final to record a 3-0 aggregate win.

Like Juventus in the Youth Cup final, Flamengo look like much the stronger team:

Fla's youth have shown tremendous improvement as the season has progressed, and look a formidable opponent.

Sevilla, meanwhile, have done tremendously well to get this far, and have steadily improved themselves through manager Senior's shrewd acquisitions in the transfer market.

Good luck to all, and may the best teams win.