By Claire Boden

Friends turn into foes for a trio of young Villa stars at the UEFA European Under-19s Championships on Sunday.

England duo Nathan Delfouneso and Nathan Baker take on their Austrian counterparts - including their club teammate Andreas Weimann - this weekend in France.

The light-hearted banter between the trio began in earnest last week when the Villa squad reported back to Bodymoor Heath for pre-season training.

Indeed, the youngsters are relishing the showdown at the Stade du Hazé, Flers, kick-off 5pm [live on Eurosport].

"It will be interesting shaking hands with him [Weimann] before the game," admitted Delfouneso, who won the Golden Boot at the tournament last year.

"We know all about Andreas and Bakes (Baker) knows about him as well. He is going to cause a threat but hopefully we will do one over on him.

"I play with him up front and he scores a lot of goals. He adds a lot to the team with his work rate, strength and finishing ability. The reserves benefitted from that last year and hopefully he can start scoring after we have played them."

Meanwhile in the Austrian camp, Weimann has been telling his national coaches and team-mates all about the talents of Delfouneso and Baker.

"The gaffer from our team has already phoned me to ask about these two because he knows I play with them," said the striker.

"They know Nathan [Delfouneso] played in the Premier League last season and he asked me about Bakes and I said he is a big defender who loves to tackle.

"I would love to put one over on them both. It's going to be hard and a hard group but it's good for Austria to be there playing against good teams.

"We will probably be texting each other having a bit of banter. We are in the same hotel so we will see each other before the game but it will be weird playing against them."

Noel Blake's Young Lions agonisingly lost to Ukraine in the final last year and Baker is hoping to banish that disappointment by bringing the trophy back to English shores at the end of the month.

"I think we have got a chance," added the defender. "We've got a good strong team this year especially with Nathan [Delfouneso] joining us.

"Having Nathan here is nice and will definitely help me settle into the team because I've been on and off with England through injury.

"Coming to tournaments like this will definitely help my career. I think we can go all the way to be honest so we will just see how it goes, but we need to get through the group stage first."

Group A comprises England, Austria, Netherlands and France while Group B includes Spain, Italy, Croatia and Portugal.

The top two teams progress to the semi-finals on Tuesday July 27. The winners of those two matches will fight it out in the showpiece on Friday July 30 in Caen.

Find out how the lads get on throughout the tournament at www.avfc.co.uk.