There were to be mixed results across the board for Juventus’ youth teams on Saturday and Sunday as the Bianconeri’s U17, U15 and “2003” sides competed in a variety of tournaments that saw their conclusions this afternoon.
Beginning with the first of the trio, a weekend that promised plenty with impressive victories over Milan, an Amateur Select XI and Hellas Verona in the “Beppe Viola” cup group stages in Trento, ended in disappointment for Felice Tufano’s U17s today with a 3-1 semi-final defeat at the hands of Atalanta.
Unfortunately, forward Simone Mancini’s strike midway through the first half to cancel out the Nerazzurri’s early lead was as good as it got for Juve on the day as Tufano’s boys conceded twice after the interval to see a final encounter with Chievo slip from their grasp, Levente Szabo (two) and Enrico Zanoni the scorers for the Bergamaschi.
There was better news on the other hand for Davide Cei’s U15s whose league thrashing of Cuneo by five goals to nil in Vinovo was the standout performance of the weekend. Things could not have started any better for Juve’s young guns as Luca De Panfilis’ brace and Nicolo Fagioli put them 3-0 up before the half-hour mark to all but end the tie as a contest.
Cei’s side were not finished there though and their dominance was confirmed after the break as Giuseppe Leone and Luciano Mazzone took the team’s tally to five to round off a very satisfying afternoon.
Although not usually a feature of the J-Academy weekend roundup, the final word of this week’s edition goes to the club’s “2003” scholars whose two victories today over Lascaris and Torino were enough to hand them the “Ale & Ricky” memorial trophy.
As ever, there were to be emotional scenes in the tournament’s closing ceremony as players and supporters alike took a moment to honour the memories of Alessio Ferramosca and Riccardo Neri.