Shan reflects on Youth League draw at Barcelona

Jimmy Shan hopes Tuesday’s positive point against Barcelona will help his Aston Villa side ultimately progress to the knockout stages of the UEFA Youth League.

Markie Meade dramatically put the Young Lions ahead for the first time in the 81^st minute of a keenly-contested clash at the Estadi Johan Cruyff.

But Iu Martinez curled in a last-gasp equaliser in the final minute of a pulsating clash to ensure it ended 3-3.

The draw leaves Villa on four points from our opening four matches in the prestigious youth competition, narrowly just outside the top 22 places to qualify ahead of fixtures to come against Galatasaray and Paris Saint-Germain.

“Overall reflection from the result is, it's a very good point,” said boss Shan.

“But as I alluded to the players in the post-match discussion, it's only going to be a very good point if we make it to the knockout stages of the competition and that is our goal.

“So, on paper, away at Barcelona, looks like a difficult proposition, they’ve obviously got some super talented players.

“The centre-forward who played the first 45 minutes (Hamza Abdelkarim) was included and on the bench for the first team in the evening.

“So that tells you the strength and depth they have. They have a number of players who are competing in their B team.

“But our mentality always is that we will set up a team to play in and out of possession with an Aston Villa brand, an Aston Villa Identity.

“And we go to compete to try and win football matches, so we were never inferior of Barcelona or being away from home.

“We wanted to thoroughly impose our football, our style, our methodology upon the game.”

Ebrima Tunkara opened the scoring after nine minutes before Villa responded positively, only to see Joni Hernandez double the home side’s lead midway through the first half.

But the valiant Villans were level at the break thanks to TJ Carroll and Rodrigo Fortes, who both scored from corners to restore parity.

Shan admitted he was disappointed with both Barcelona goals in the first half but was equally full of praise for the respective responses of his side, hailing “two outstanding deliveries from set-plays” leading to Villa’s goals.

And, after Meade looked to have put the visitors on course for all three points, Villa, having been forced into personnel and formation changes, were denied a superb victory by Barça’s late leveller.

“On paper, it was a tough, competitive game. I’m proud of the boys’ endeavour,” Shan added.

“Barcelona are not only very, very good technically and tactically, they're very, very good physically.

“So, for the boys to stand up to that, match it and be able to outperform that in moments gives us a building block.

“But the ultimate goal, the ultimate aim, is to qualify, as I said, into the knockout phase.

“Hopefully this point will prove in two games’ time to be the point that contributes to us executing that vision of making the knockout stages.”