Update: Man City FA Youth Cup final date confirmed as Blues look to make history News

Manchester City booked their place in the FA Youth Cup final with a win at Watford last week, looking to defend last year’s title.

Manchester City will contest their FA Youth Cup final at Villa Park next month in a bid to defend the trophy they won last season.

City beat Leeds in front of 20,000 fans last May at the Etihad Stadium, and have booked back-to-back final spots this season under the new management of Oliver Reiss and Kolo Toure. The young Blues are on an incredible 25-game winning run and are well-placed to win the under-18 Premier League North ahead of rivals Manchester United.

And they face a Youth Cup final against Aston Villa having beaten Crystal Palace, Millwall, Leeds, West Brom and Watford en-route to the showpiece where they can secure successive Youth Cups for the first time in their history.

The final will take place on Monday, May 5, at Villa Park, with a 3pm kick off for the Bank Holiday clash. Villa last hosted the final in 2021 when they beat Liverpool in front of 4,000 supporters.

No side has defended the Youth Cup since it changed to a single-match format in 2019, with City involved in six finals since 2015 including this year. They lost three finals in a row to Chelsea between 2015 and 2018 over two legs, and were beaten on penalties by Liverpool in the 2019 final – Cole Palmer missing the decisive spot kick as a 16-year-old.

The fortunes turned a year later as Palmer, Liam Delap, Morgan Rogers and James McAtee broke their curse against Chelsea and last year was City’s fourth success in the competition after previous wins in 1986 and 2008.

Defender Kian Noble, a stand-out performer in last year’s final, told MEN Sport last week: “Why go only one time if you can go two times? Everyone knows how prestigious the tournament is. To win it a second time would be brilliant. This was our goal for the season along with the league. It’s a challenge, of course it is, but what an achievement it will be.

“It’s the biggest honour and most prestigious honour. Everyone knows how big it is and how many good players have won it. That’s our real aim.”

And Noble insisted City can turn Villa’s home advantage against them if they let their football do the talking, saying: “Look at Liverpool and Man City on Champions League nights, the atmosphere can create a massive part of football. Look at City vs Real Madrid two years ago, they just destroyed them because of the atmosphere.

“It’s a massive part of football, the pitch doesn’t change but the atmosphere does. If we can enhance our atmosphere and put it into the game I think we can come through.”

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