Villa and Villarreal Hit Four, Bowler Hat-trick

A busy night in the opening round of fixtures in this season's new look Youth Cup saw 27 matches produce 24 wins, 3 draws, 65 (legitimate) goals, almost as many yellow cards (54), and 7 reds.

Biggest winners were Aston Villa and Villarreal with 4-0 wins each (biggest losers, Roma and Udinese). Sunderland's Josh Bowler tops the scoring charts following his splendid hat-trick in Kyiv.

Four teams - Sassuolo, Shakhtar, Besiktas and Koln - fielded overage players and recorded 0-3 defeats by default.

Season 7 Youth Cup Fixtures

Just a quick post to remind anyone who hasn't seen it on the newsfeed or the blog page.

The fixtures for the Youth Cup Groups Stage are on the main blog pages:

• Groups A, B & C
• Groups D, E & F
• Groups G, H & I

All managers should send out friendly requests for their home games as soon as possible.

The first week of matches is scheduled for Saturday 20 January.