The most prestigious youth tournament in all of world football kicked off as the world’s best youngsters flocked to Viareggio looking to prove their prestige.
However, the main aim is to topple reigning champions Anderlecht, who defeated AC Milan in the final last year, but they laid down a marker with an opening day win.
Standing in their way were Napoli but the Partenopei threat was snuffed out through a second half goal from Andy Kawaya to get the champions off to a winning start in an unspectacular affair.
Elsewhere in Group 2, Palermo thrashed Apia Leichhardt 5-0 and they will be very glad to see that Cephas Malele is back among the goals.
Fellow Italians Atalanta opened up their account with a 1-1 draw in Group A against Nordsjaelland which will disappoint them given that the equaliser was conceded with just seven minutes to go.
In Group 3, Roma started off with an uninspiring 0-0 draw at Benfica although Livorno, who play in the same Primavera division as the Giallorossi, went down to a disappointing 2-0 loss against Envigado.
Group 4’s Torino opened up their tournament last year with an 8-0 win but had to settle for achieving just half of those heights this time as they put four past Stabaek without reply.
Emanuel Gyasi opened the scoring for the Granata while Matteo Colombi claimed an opening day brace.
Siena remain second in that group after they dug themselves out of a hole, Simone Monni scoring twice in the space of two second half minutes as they battled back for a draw from 2-0 down.
