AC Milan’s Primavera side will continue their UEFA Youth League campaign on Wednesday afternoon when they face off against Braga in the round of 16.
As a reminder, Milan got to the final four of the competition last season but lost to Hajduk Split, and then they topped their group this season.
Milan opened their group campaign with a 4-0 win over Newcastle at home, then they won 2-1 in Dortmund before losing 1-0 to PSG.
They got revenge with a 3-2 victory over the Parisians in the return game, then beat Dortmund 4-1 to secure top spot, losing the final game 3-1 to Newcastle.
They will face an opponent from Portugal, hoping to get into the quarter-finals again.
Date, time and how to watch
The fixture is set for Wednesday 28 February at 14:30 CET at the Vismara Sports Centre (known as the PUMA House of Football).
The match between Milan Primavera and Braga U-19 will be visible for free on UEFA.tv and on Sky Sport Calcio on Sky channel 202 in Italy. We will provide coverage on our X feed, and a post-match report.
A look at Braga
Braga finished second in their group as they beat Napoli 1-0 in the first game, then won 4-1 away at Union Berlin, draw 0-0 twice with Real Madrid, won 1-0 against Union and then drew 2-2 against Napoli.
They were put into the play-off round, where they pulled off an impressive 2-0 victory away against Serbian powerhouses Partizan Belgrade.
In terms of interesting profiles, the first to mention might be the head coach Rui Duarte who was coach at Farense and Casa Pia – two teams that play in the Portuguese first division – before becoming Braga U19 boss.
There are two players to mention above all. The first is João Vasconcelos, Braga’s top scorer in the first part of the Youth League with four goals in seven appearances.
The second, is Nuno Patricio, born in 2006, who however has already made his debut with the U23 team and is already represented by the CAA Stellar agency.
How the competition works
If Abate’s team also overcame Braga, only the quarter-finals would separate them from the Final Four in April (from 19th to 22nd).
Then, there would be a new draw involving the teams that have made the semi-finals, with the others at present being: AZ Alkmaar, Porto, Zilina, Copenhagen, Mainz, Manchester City, Olympiacos, RC Lens, Salzburg, Nantes, Bayern Munich, Feyenoord, Real Madrid and RB Leipzig.
