The Cymru MU17 squad head to San Marino this week for Round 1 of their UEFA qualifiers against Norway, Italy and the hosts and head coach Wayne Hatswell is confident his team can build on their recent performances.
“I’ve been very impressed,” explained Hatswell to FAW.cymru. “There’s some real talent in the squad and a lot of them are going to go on and have really good careers that’s for sure, so it’s exciting. Some of them will become adults very soon and we treat them that way in terms of our demands, as the main thing is that they develop.”
Cymru prepared for the mini-tournament with friendlies against Gibraltar, Qatar, Portugal and France, and now play their first competitive match under Hatswell against Norway on Tuesday, 5 November at the Stadio di Montecchio. They return to the same stadium on Friday, 8 November to take on Italy before completing their campaign against hosts San Marino at the Stadio Di Acquaviva. All matches kick-off at 10am UK time.
“We’ve had a camp in Spain and camp in Portugal where we’ve played some different opposition which has been great preparation for what we’re going into in San Marino,” Hatswell added. “The first camp was a bit indifferent as we had a really positive 5-0 win against Gibraltar, but we then lost a physical game against Qatar (2-1) through a couple of mistakes. These things can happen.
“We then went into the Portugal camp to play two tough opponents and we acquitted ourselves really well. We drew 1-1 with Portugal and we were winning until the final moments against France before going down 3-1. We now play Italy, who are probably on a par with Portugal and France, so it was good to work on the out-of-possession side of things, which we did really well, and then try to punish teams when we could. We defended the box really well against Portugal, but we were also a threat in possession too.”
Cymru made history in 2023 by qualifying for the UEFA U17 EURO finals for the first time ever, and they repeated the achievement earlier this year under former head coach Craig Knight. Hatswell believes his current squad have the desire to emulate that success. “We’ve had two positive camps and the lads have gained a lot of belief on the back of that,” he explained. “They want that winning feeling and everyone wants success. I’ve seen how much it means to players at this age group. The way the French celebrated against us was a learning curve for me, and I hope we can be the ones celebrating next week.
“The first match could be the most crucial one. We play Norway, and from what I’ve seen of them they can be quite indifferent in that they can be direct but also they can play, so that has its different challenges for us. It’s the first game of the tournament and you don’t way to lose, but its not the be all and end all of the tournament. Its an old cliché, but we have to take it one game at a time and my focus is on Norway and keeping everybody fit so that we can go into the second and third games firing on all cylinders.”
A total of 53 national associations will compete for just seven places at the finals that will take place in Albania next May. The hosts qualify automatically but are included in the qualifiers as they will determine the standings for MU19 qualifying in 2026/27. The top two teams from the 14 groups will advance to Round 2 which will take place next Spring, with the 28 teams drawn into seven groups of four. The winners of each Round 2 group will then qualify for the finals.
Cymru MU17: Alex MARCINIAK (Arsenal), Carter HEYWOOD (Swansea City), Charlie STREET (QPR), Eliot MEREDITH (Coventry City), Hayden ALLMARK (Cardiff City), Kaven BLONIARCZYK (Swansea City), Kai RHODES (Swansea City), Levi KENDRICK (Everton), Luis GARDNER (Everton), Louie BRADBURY (Manchester United), Marlie NEIL (Huddersfield Town), Milo ROBINSON (Swansea City), Oscar ABBOTSON (Southampton), Oli NEWMAN (Southampton), Olly DEWSBURY (Bristol Rovers), Olly REYNOLDS (Cardiff City), Prince CISSE (Liverpool), Shea PITA (Everton), Will GRAINGER (Sheffield Wednesday).
