Ballard - How we can turn the tie around

Our under-18s have a mountain to climb in the second leg of their FA Youth Cup final against Chelsea.

Despite taking the lead through Xavier Amaechi, Kwame Ampadu’s side slipped to a 3-1 defeat at the end of a tough Friday evening at Stamford Bridge.

 

But captain Danny Ballard saw enough from our first-leg performance to convince him we have what’s needed to turn the tie around at Emirates Stadium on Monday.

 

“I think for large parts of the game we were really organised in defence and we showed that we’re dangerous on the break,” he told Arsenal.com. “We have a lot of threats in wide areas and as we saw, we have the players to be able to get a result on Monday.

 

“I still think we were a threat on the counter-attack, especially with Bukayo Saka coming on. We had chances even though they had a lot of possession, so we can definitely hurt them going into the second leg.

 

“We know that we can score goals in any game. Chelsea are a really good side and we know that, but we can do it and we’ve got to focus on the positives.”

 

Remember, you can watch the second leg LIVE on Arsenal.com from 7.35pm (UK time) on Monday, April 30.