In the first half of City’s UEFA Youth League clash, our Under-19s created 14 chances but couldn’t quite find the breakthrough.
But the second half was a completely different story as City ran out 6-0 winners against Bayer Leverkusen, with all of our goals coming in the final 45 minutes, and all fantastic finishes.
The triumph at the Joie Stadium on Tuesday afternoon has put City on the brink of securing our place in the knockout stage of the prestigious European competition.
It was the perfect reaction from Wilkinson’s side following the November international break. Prior to it, City fell to a frustrating 3-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund last time out in the Youth League.
MATCH REPORT | CITY U19S 6-0 LEVERKUSEN
And there was plenty of positives for Wilkinson as he reviewed his team’s performance at full-time.
“[I’m] very pleased,” began Wilkinson.
“Right from the outset, I thought we were where we wanted to be today. The first half was really good, lots of really good things.
“Probably the most pleasing for me throughout the game was how we were without the ball. I thought we were really aggressive, which was what we wanted to be.
“We had much more intent about us. We created more high-pressure situations, more regains, more sprints, more pressing actions high up the pitch, which was what we wanted.
“So that was a really pleasing thing, and I think that allowed us to have more control with the ball and spend more time in the opposition’s half.
“So that was a big plus for me today from the last game.
“And then obviously on the back of that, we created a lot. Probably should be going into half-time ahead, but we didn’t, so to score early in the second was a bonus.
“And then I thought the second half the quality in the final third was top.”
Watch Wilkinson’s post-match interview in full via the video above...
