Man City vs Leeds United U18 LIVE Updates from the FA Youth Cup Final at the Etihad Stadium

It’s a quiet opening as Leeds look to settle and not give City much space. The Blues try to work the ball from side to side and take out the defense to allow runners to get in behind.

The highlight of the first 10 minutes is the fans rallying to sing “If you hate Man United stand up”. Beautiful to see.

Back to football and Joel Ndala takes the first shot firing into the side netting from a tight angle.

We’re underway and the stands continue to fill up a bit.

Alfa-Ruprecht is on the right, Oboavwoduo is in the middle and Ndala is on the left. Jaden Heskey leads the line, with Divine Mukasa and Charlie Gray in the middle.

City have sold almost 20,000 tickets for this final, but a few of those need to queue for some drinks in the sun before heading out – there’s a good number here, but not that many.

The teams come out to Hey Jude, with the captains of each team introducing their teammates to FA President Debbie Hughes. This is a prestigious FA final after all. Next comes the national anthem.

The Leeds fans are here to make some noise and the fans in the North Stand respond with some city chants. This should be a good atmosphere, suitable for two very promising youth teams.

Speaking in today’s press conference, Pep Guardiola had a message for the youth team:

At this age silverware is important, but not much. He has to try to win, but anything can happen. It’s a learning process and when you play these finals you’re always learning, playing under pressure and having to perform well. For the academy, it is very important. The last few years have been unbelievable in many ways.

City’s last FA Youth Cup win came in 2020 when a side full of future stars beat Chelsea behind closed doors at St George’s Park.

Some of these players are full-fledged Premier League players these days, such as Cole Palmer, James McAtee, Tommy Doyle and Morgan Rogers.

Others have taken the longer route after leaving City – while some are staying at the club and enjoying the loan.

From that squad four years ago, City have already pocketed £96m, with more likely to follow up to the £100m mark from a host of particularly talented youngsters.

Can this year’s Youth Cup finalists follow up and make a name for themselves in the future – either at City or elsewhere?

Howard Wilkinson is the last Leeds manager to win the top flight, is a former England caretaker manager and former FA technical director.

Growing up in that environment shaped City manager Ben Wilkinson, as he told MEN Sport in this week’s chat.

Wilkinson discusses his unorthodox journey into coaching, why he retired from the game aged 24 and whether dad Howard will be cheering for City or Leeds tonight!

If you’re not really keeping up with who’s who in the academy this season, fear not.

We’ve put together a handy guide to the City squad to face Leeds tonight, from the centre-back who is modeled after John Stones and trained with the England first team, to Emile Heskey’s son and the ‘one-of-a-kind’ striker who he bases his game on Kevin De Bruyne but doesn’t want to be compared to anyone else.

You can read all about the class of ’24 right here.

Hello and welcome to tonight’s Men’s FA Youth Cup Final live blog.

Can City go all the way? We’ll find out tonight. Stay tuned.