Espanyols youth cup game has been left in chaos today after the team bus was attacked on route by a barrage of "Frey Bentos" pies.

The coach stopped at the services but when the players returned to it after their breakfast, the windows had been put through.

Youth team captain Broja said....

"its been crazy, the police have been looking for the culprits, but have found a few clues. These seem to be not the brightest criminals with one of them leaving what appears to be their tactics on one of the seats, its certainly narrowed it down"

Kalimuendo added

"We saw them spin away in the getaway vehicle, there was two guys with greasy mops. It had a "jim il fix for you" badge hanging from the internal mirror, and a Rolf Harris bumper sticker, i'm not an expert, but it suggest there is some fixation with kids about these two."

A club statement put out this morning states.

"We are sad to report we have been ambushed on our way back from our training camp in Portugal, this has put our match at risk tonight with Ajax, in which we are pulling out all the stops to get the game on. We have put out a detailed photofit of the two clowns responsible and applaud anyone with any further information on these two to come forward and pass this on to the TOP100 admin mafia"

Espanyol take a surprise narrow advantage into the second leg of the youth cup semi finals as tonight they beat an excellent Leicester side 3-2 in an end to end tie. Leicester twice took the lead in the fixture, but Espanyol came fighting back as goals from Stiller, Leonardo and Mukhin sent the home fans home dreaming.

Speaking to the media after the game

You have a real chance, how are you feeling?

"Its been an incredible journey and we are still in the tie, I can ask for no more. We had to dig in despite going behind twice, their keeper has also had a blinder so if anything it would of been nice to convert another one of our chances, but still its a great result for us"

How strong are Leicester, can you progress?

Leicester, here we have a team expertly put together by a really top manager. He has brought the team up through the divisions through some excellent scouting and transfer negotiations. He is currently top of division two, but has throughout his time ensured he has looked after his youth team to compliment his first team. He has shown exactly how it should be done, to compete on all fronts. They are still slight favourites with the home tie to come, but I genuinely hope if he progresses, he is rewarded with the trophy at the end."

The other tie has seen Levante beat Barcelona 2-0, two strong sides, your thoughts?

"Firstly we need to take one game at a time, this tie is nicely poised and both Leicester and us know its just half-time here.

The other tie is interesting for the wrong reasons to be honest. Barcelona of course is the team i'd personally like to progress, as I strongly believe we should not be rewarding teams who have clearly manipulated the contract loup holes.

A free season pass for winning this competition could see Levante rewarded for possible back to back relegations with another free season in Division 3, which would again allow them to not take the league competition seriously, making the whole thing a farce.
As Barcelona and Leicester have shown in this seasons competition, you can still be successful in the league and service the first team.
Its no major feat or achievement to sell all your high rated players and assets for youth players. Anyone could do it, and very quickly amass a youth team that is significantly stronger than most of the rest.
I'm sure if I chose to swap all my best players for the top youth , i'd have a bigger chance of winning the youth cup. We've shown this season that we can build first team, youth team and the next youth team. This is a controversial view for some, but my conscience is clear.

If we are rewarding teams/managers who suffer back to back relegations then what is the point of contracts and what message are we setting?

Of course Levante may stop up, may not win the youth cup, but I trully hope if a panel decision is needed, that those appointed to make this decision look past squad assembly and look at the picture which saw players like Ben White swapped for Jobi Bellingham. Look at during Levante's relegation season last season, how the manager deliberately left his best players out in league games to ensure he went down, to try and manipulate an easy contract. It back fired though, he didnt win the youth cup, didnt get his get of jail card and as each game ticks off in the league, gets closer to taking his side from Div 1 to 3 in 2 seasons. A side i may add that didnt need open heart surgery after the great job Dario the previous manager did in building up nice assets.

This of course is my opinion which i'm entitled to have, and hopefully it becomes irrelevant as one of the other three teams in the competition who aint manipulated the rules knock him out as a victory for the other 99 game World managers who play the game in the right spirit, where the league actually matters"

Espanyol will to battle with Leicester on Saturday night in the youth cup semi final first leg, looking to defy the odds and cause an upset.

Leicester have put together a formidable youth team with a number already part of the first team set up.

In their midfield is former Espanyol young star Caicedo who was key to the spanish sides run to the semi finals, whilst Martinelli in attack is a major danger.

Espanyol's own youth team has been strengthened this week as Hickey completed his move from Feyenoord and will make his debut at Full back.

Espanyol's strength this season has been their ability to switch around their formation due to the flexibility in the squad. Despite being lower rated, the spanish side have their own danger men with Leonardo, Henrique and Balogun all capable of being match winners.

We've lost Caicedo and Alberto from the side that was doing so well in the early stages. They were big players for us, and will be missed as we look to get something in the first leg to keep us in the tie.

Leicester will start favourites and the pressure is on them to get the job done, however i have big belief in this crop of youngsters and we wont go down without a fight. We have a game plan for the two legs and hopefully this will catch Leicester by surprise when the game comes around. We are gonna enjoy the experience, as mentioned previously we have exceeded expectations and this squad owes us nothing in this competition. We are having a good season, and still going strong on three fronts. The future is very bright for Espanyol, and this seasons youth cup has seen some great line ups. Over in the other semi final in Barcelona and Levante we have two impressive squads. Who ever comes out on top over the next few weeks will have earnt that trophy as the competition is hot.