Potters go on to win Young Boys tie on penalties...
BSC YOUNG BOYS 2 (Guillaume 43, Yoric 46)
STOKE CITY 2 (Adam (PEN) 56, Muniesa 57)
Stoke City win 4-3 on penalties
CHARLIE ADAM inspired a spirited second half fightback against Champions League side BSC Young Boys in the Potters’ final Uhrencup encounter on Wednesday evening.
The Swiss Super League side looked to be on course for victory after goals from Guillaume Hoarau and Yoric Ravet gave them a comfortable two-goal advantage.
However, Adam rifled home a spot-kick to halve the deficit moments after Peter Crouch had been upended, before the Scotland international whipped across a delightful centre for Marc Muniesa to head home just 60 seconds later.
There were even opportunities for Mark Hughes’ men to upstage their opponents, who kick-off their league campaign in just 10 days’ time.
Youngster Tyrese Campbell was presented with the best of those chances after latching onto a clever through ball from Crouch, but wasn’t able to beat goalkeeper David Von Ballmoos, who made a tremendous save down to his right.
No winner could be found in normal time however, and so it was left to a penalty shootout where Jakob Haugaard proved to be City’s hero, saving three spot kicks before Crouch wrapped up the victory with the Potters’ eighth attempt from 12 yards.
Prior to kick-off Mark Hughes named a strong starting line-up, fielding an 11 made up entirely of first-team players, including the recently promoted Julien Ngoy and Thibaud Verlinden.
There were also spots in the team for the likes of Lee Grant, skipper Ryan Shawcross, Giannelli Imbula and Saido Berahino.
Marko Arnautovic and Phil Bardsley both missed out though, after suffering injuries in Monday night’s 1-0 victory over Neuchatel Xamax.
Swiss superstar Xherdan Shaqiri was in attendance, although his presence was more to appease the local supporters after not being named in the matchday squad.
Stoke City: Grant (Haugaard 45), Johnson (Edwards 59), Shawcross (Souttar 59), Wollsheid (Muniesa 45), Pieters (Shenton 66), Adam (Fletcher), Imbula (Sweeney 59), Ngoy (Telford 45), Verlinden (Tymon 45), Bojan (Campbell 66), Berahino (Crouch 45).
