Max Porter believes there are plenty of positives to take from our opening UEFA Youth League contest, despite our under-19s falling to a late 3-1 defeat against Athletic Club.
Brando Bailey-Joseph brought us back on terms just 17 seconds into the second half, but we couldn't hold out for a point as Manex Lozano and Elijah Gift struck late to give the hosts all three points.
Despite the late heartbreak, Max, our under-21s head coach, believes we can build on the performance ahead of our next match in the competition against Olympiacos on October 1.
He said: "There are a lot of amazing positives. It's our toughest competition; everything from travelling to the build-up to it. For us, putting a squad together and then trying to compete, it's a brilliant opportunity.
"We take into Olympiacos the positives from today and we can say that if we do these things well and we can sustain it, we will be able to compete with any team and show what we're about, who we are, to give ourselves the best chance of getting results, and that's what we want for these boys.
[Read more
U19s report: Athletic Club 3-1 Arsenal](https://www.arsenal.com/fixture/under-19/2025-Sep-16/athletic-club-u19-under-19-match-report?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
"We want them to be able to showcase how good they are on a European stage. The thing that we've got to realise is that this level of competition, you have to have an element of game management.
"We seem to be a little bit behind those teams. We're trying to help and educate the players, but unfortunately, a lot of it is having experiences of that, how you slow down a game, how you speed up a game when you need to."
After falling behind early on to Lozano's close-range finish, we showed promising signs, getting a well-deserved leveller shortly after the restart.
However, the host's build-up of pressure finally told as we conceded two late efforts - something that Max is hoping we will learn from in future matches.
He said: "It was a tough game, Bilbao were a good side, I think the main issue we had was that after starting well we lost our rhythm, but I was really, really happy with how the players responded at half-time.
"We came out and gave a really, really good response, we got back in the game, we had some moments, but we couldn't maintain the intensity required in this game to sustain that and give us the best chance and towards the end of the game we were too open because of that and unfortunately, ended up losing.
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How the UEFA Youth League works](https://www.arsenal.com/news/how-uefa-youth-league-works?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
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