The 2012–13 NextGen Series was the second season of the NextGen Series. The tournament involved the under-19 teams from 24 European countries. The tournament was won by Aston Villa who overcame Chelsea in the final.
Format changes From the previous season's competition, one major format change was announced, with the competition moving from a 16-team to a 24-team affair. The group stage was run in six groups of four, an expansion of the same format as the previous season.
Teams The 24 teams were sorted into six groups, where they played each other home and away in a Round-robin tournament. The top teams advanced to the finals of the competition.
Fifteen of the 16 founder-members reprise their roles, consisting of some of the highest-reputations teams from across UEFA, mirroring the current or recent Champions League involvement of their first teams. Only Basel of Switzerland declined the invitation to reappear.
Aston Villa Liverpool Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur Barcelona Wolfsburg Internazionale Sporting CP Marseille Ajax PSV Eindhoven Fenerbahçe Celtic Molde Rosenborg
They were joined by a further nine teams of high standing for the expanded series.
Arsenal Chelsea Athletic Bilbao Borussia Dortmund Juventus Paris Saint-Germain CSKA Moscow Olympiacos Anderlecht
Group stage The 24 teams were sorted into six groups of four, where they play each other home and away in a double round robin format. The top-two teams from each group progressed to the knock-out stages of the competition alongside the four highest points-scoring third-place finishers.
Key to colours in group tables Group winners, runners-up and four best third placed teams advance to the round of 16
Group 1
Team Barcelona6321126+611 Anderlecht623186+29 Tottenham Hotspur6222101008 Wolfsburg6114917−84
Kickoff times are in CET.
Group 2
Team Paris Saint-Germain6411105+513 Juventus6330139+412 Manchester City6123810−25 Fenerbahçe6024613−72
Kickoff times are in CET.
Group 3
Team CSKA Moscow640285+312 Ajax 6321156+911 Chelsea6231126+69 Molde6015220−181 Kickoff times are in CET.
Group 4
Team Sporting CP64021211+112 Aston Villa6312128+410 PSV Eindhoven630369−39 Celtic6114810-24
Kickoff times are in CET.
Group 5
Team Internazionale63121010010 Rosenborg63121010010 Liverpool63031410+49 Borussia Dortmund612359-45
Kickoff times are in CET.
Group 6
Team Olympiacos623145−19 Arsenal622275+28 Marseille6222410−68 Athletic Bilbao6213127+57
Kickoff times are in CET.
Ranking of third-placed teams
Team3 Chelsea6231126+695 Liverpool63031410+494 PSV Eindhoven630369−391 Tottenham Hotspur62221010086 Marseille6222410−682 Manchester City6123810−25
Knockout stage
The knockout round matches were decided by ordering each team from 1 through 16, with the top ranked team facing the lowest ranked team, and on down.
Key to colours Group winners Runners-up Four best third-placed teams
SeededUnseeded#Team#Team1. Paris Saint-Germain13+5109. Aston Villa10+4122. CSKA Moscow12+3810. Rosenborg100103. Sporting CP12+11211. Anderlecht9+284. Barcelona11+61212. Arsenal8+275. Internazionale1001013. Chelsea9+6126. Olympiacos9−1414. Liverpool9+4147. Juventus12+41315. PSV Eindhoven9−368. Ajax 11+91516. Tottenham Hotspur8010
Bracket
Round of 16
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third place match
Final
Top goalscorers
Players and teams in bold are still active in the competition: RankNameTeamGoals1 Graham Burke Aston Villa7 Islam Feruz Chelsea3 Michael Drennan Aston Villa64 Conor Coady Liverpool5 Shaq Coulthirst Tottenham Hotspur Carlos Mané Sporting CP7 Chuba Akpom Arsenal4 Lewis Baker Chelsea Viktor Fischer Ajax Alex Pritchard Tottenham Hotspur11 Magnus Blakstad Rosenborg3 Jeremie Boga Chelsea Francesco Forte Internazionale Philipp Hauck Wolfsburg Nikolaos Ioannidis Olympiacos Alex Kiwomya Chelsea Iuri Medeiros Sporting CP Adam Morgan Liverpool Sandro Barcelona Gorka Santamaría Athletic Bilbao Note 1: In January 2013 Alex Pritchard moved on loan from Tottenham Hotspur to Peterborough United.
See also 2012–13 UEFA Champions League
References