The cliche goes that you learn far more from your defeats than your victories, and that is certainly the case within the Manchester City academy after a difficult exit from Europe last week.
City's under-19s fell 2-0 down at Hajduk Split in the UEFA Youth League last week, and could only find one goal back to crash out of Europe at the last-16 stage in front of a large, vocal and partisan crowd in Croatia. Throwing their best players into difficult atmospheres and situations is something City see as important - but so is winning, and the mood inside the academy has been a disappointed one over the last week.
So the sight of an FA Youth Cup quarter-final against Oxford on Tuesday provides and opportunity for City to bounce back, and there is hope that this time it can be a large City crowd making the difference - not an opposition one.
