Pafundi Perfetto: UEFA U-19 EURO, Matchday 1

Our scouting round-up of MD1 of the men's tournament in Northern Ireland.

After all the hullabaloo of EURO 2024 in Germany, we can now unwind with the lazily-paced men’s UEFA U-19 EURO in Northern Ireland. Eight teams play out four games across two days, with a rest in between each round. Perfect.

This is the tournament that doesn’t quite fit into the increasingly relentless football calender. It’s mid-July start means clubs are reluctant to let their youngsters compete in it when they want, or need, them for their own pre-season. That means the squads we see aren’t quite as strong as they would be.

Norway’s would be much stronger, for example, were it not for the fact that the tournament falls slap bang in the middle of their domestic season, where a lot of these emerging players are breaking into first teams.

But there’s still plenty of talent on show in Northern Ireland. Stevie and Llew will be covering it all, from group stage to final, with our customary scouting round-ups. If you want to get ahead of the curve on the future of European football, stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.

Also, you should absolutely go back and read our massive UEFA U-17 EURO Team of the Tournament write-up from the start of the summer.

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In this MD1 round-up:

• The obvious Italian standout, owned by INEOS

• France’s lacklustre group of under-19s?

• Valencia’s much-vaunted, left-footed centre-back

• A ‘buttery smooth’ technician, and more…