Leeds United Under-21s will be looking for a second win as many matches as they continue their Premier League International Cup campaign on Wednesday evening with an exciting clash against Athletic Club B.
The encounter with the Bilbao outfit in York follows on from the young Whites’ dramatic injury time victory over Portugal’s Sporting CP B in the opening round of fixtures.
After levelling the tie on the stroke of half time through Harvey Vincent, defender Reuben Lopata-White popped up with a last-gasp header to earn three points for Scott Gardner’s team.
Leeds sit top of the Group D standings and go into Wednesday’s clash refreshed after the international break, though they did feature against an experienced Fleetwood Town side in the Vertu Trophy last week.
Prior to that tie on the Lancashire coast, United had collected four points from their previous two Premier League 2 matches, beating Norwich City before being held to a 2-2 draw by West Bromwich Albion.
Athletic Club began their Premier League International Cup journey with a defeat to Manchester United away from home despite taking the lead at Old Trafford.
The team’s B team, officially called Bilbao Athletic, represent an integral part of the club’s identity, who famously only use players born in, or trained in, the Basque region of Spain.
Bilbao Athletic ply their trade in the Primera Federación, the country’s third tier, and currently sit tenth in the early season standings, winning two of their opening seven matches.
The Whites will also face Borussia Dortmund and Anderlecht in Group D, aiming to finish in the top two and qualify for the knockout rounds.
Action from the LNER Community Stadium gets underway at 7pm.
Last time out in European action:
The view from inside the camp:
Ahead of the match, boss Gardner said: “We have done the same prep as we do for every game. The focus is always on us and trying to maximise how we can hurt the opposition.
“If we can build on what we did against Sporting, hopefully it will be a good night for us. I thought all around, on and off the ball, we showed the best version of ourselves.
“We just want to give the lads every opportunity to be exposed to different environments. The competitions we are in are different challenges and we want to provide as much of those as we can throughout.”
Read the full interview HERE.
Supporter information:
Adult tickets are priced at £6, with concessions and under-16s priced at £3. Parking can also be purchased with your ticket.
More information about the LNER Community Stadium, including directions and matchday facilities, can be found HERE.
How to follow:
Subscribers to LUTV can watch the full match live, HERE. Highlights and post-match reaction will also be available after the full-time whistle.
Fans can stay right here on leedsunited.com to follow live blog updates throughout the 90 minutes, with a full match report and highlights available after the game has finished.
