Sunderland’s under-21s will face some of Europe’s biggest academy names in this season’s Premier League International Cup
Matt Craddock believes Sunderland’s under-21s are getting their own taste of European football as the club’s academy programme brings PSV, Paris Saint-Germain and Porto to Wearside.
The Black Cats opened their Premier League International Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against PSV at the Stadium of Light this week, Felix Scott scoring Sunderland’s equaliser. It followed a pre-season trip to Spain which included a 2-1 defeat against Valencia Mestalla on July 31.
Sunderland’s group schedule does not get any easier. Anderlecht visit on October 30, PSG are due on November 11 and Porto complete the four-game programme on January 13.
For Craddock, the value is in asking young players to solve different problems against sides brought up in different football cultures. “This competition is brilliant,” he said. Already this season, we’ve played Valencia and we’ve played PSV.
“And then we’ve got, like you said, we’ve got PSG and some other really big names coming up. It’s fantastic. Obviously, the first team are in Europe this year, and this gives us our little flavour of that. We come up against teams that do different things. They play in a different way. They have a different mentality. And it’s just all part of that variety we’re trying to offer the lads to help their development.”
The Premier League International Cup was created to give English academy players experience against overseas opposition. The format contains 16 English under-21 sides and 16 invited European teams in four groups. English clubs play four home group games against the overseas sides, with the top two in each section progressing to the quarter-finals.
Sunderland know the value of the competition. They reached the final in 2016-17 before losing to Porto, while recent editions have brought teams including Benfica and Borussia Mönchengladbach to the Stadium of Light. This season’s programme carries another connection.
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Régis Le Bris’ first team will play Europa League football for the first time after Sunderland finished seventh in the Premier League. Craddock’s players cannot replicate that stage, but PSV, PSG, Anderlecht and Porto should give Sunderland’s next generation a European education of their own.
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