This is the Blood Red Podcast from the Liverpool Echo, giving you the inside track on all the big talking points from Anfield.

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest edition of the Academy show I'm your host

most Stewart and joining me as ever is our Academy expert the man who's out there

rain or shine and in the last month there's been a fair bit of rain watching those

boys take on the world Matt Addison map there's been a lot of great football

over the time even if maybe it's not always in the best conditions.

Yeah that there certainly has yeah maybe it's not always in the best conditions.

Yeah, there certainly has yeah and we're gonna get into it shortly aren't we but

it's been there it's been an exciting period really there's not been loads to talk

about with the 23s but certainly with the 18 slash 19s plenty to get into and

plenty of of positivity as well which is always always good isn't it?

Yeah we like the positivity and considering how rosy things seem in the garden for the scene is at the moment, it's really nice to see that the kids are also taking up some of that momentum.

Which brings me nicely onto the UEFA Youth League, the under 18s, had their own

little penalty shootout success in the round of 16 game against the Belgians Gink.

Now, it's a fantastic achievement to

achieve to reach the last day. I know we often talk about the fact that

trophies and titles isn't the end goal for these boys, but I'm not sure

we've been in this. I mean the competition is only eight years old so I'm not even sure we've been this bar before

And we're gonna be playing a massive team like Juventus so wherever you look at it this is a big big big achievement for these boys, isn't it?

Yeah, they have got to this round before. They were knocked out in 2018 to Manchester

City in the quarterfinals. So if they can go one better that would certainly you know be a good thing for

them and I think it is it's about their experience it's something we spoke to the manager

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