A young Brentford team will be heading to Italy later this week for a prestigious fixture.

The Bees are sending an Under-15 squad to northern Italy to face Internazionale – better known as Inter Milan – in a friendly match.

The young Brentford side will fly out to Italy tomorrow, Wednesday April 16, and play the match on Thursday morning.

They will then fly back to the UK.

The match was arranged by a volunteer coach at Brentford’s Category Two Football Academy.

Ose Aibangee, Brentford FC Academy Director, said: “One of our coaches used to play for Inter’s academy.

“He arranged it all.”

Ose will be among a group of six staff flying out with the boys for the match.

He said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for our young players.

“Everyone involved with the Academy is extremely excited about the challenge of taking on one of the best teams in Italy and one of the biggest names in World football.

“It will be great for them to have the chance to play in Europe and travel as a team.

“It will help their development, we will learn about them and they will learn about each other.

“I am really looking forward to it.

“The coaching staff will have the opportunity to speak to our colleagues in Italy.

“We can exchange ideas, look at their facilities and see how they go about developing young players.

“We can, I am sure, take things they do and look to see how they would work in an English setting.

“The players will have a real test on the field but results do not really matter at this age – we do not generally publish the scores from games at Under-16 level or lower, despite the fact we do very well – it is about how they can adapt to playing a different opponent with a different style.

“I was very pleased the opportunity came up and I believe it will be a great few days.”

The Inter Milan match is one of a series of fixtures being played by Brentford’s Academy teams against international opponents.

The Bees played a team from FC Hlučín, from the Czech Republic, earlier this month at Under-17 level and against a Japanese side, FC Toko, at Under-18 level.

Academy teams from American and Australia have visited in the last few weeks and on Saturday, April 19, The Bees will face a team representing the Republic of Ireland’s Combined Counties Football League.

Ose added: “Part of developing young players is to give them the chance to take on different opponents in different scenarios.

“These games all help us do that and we are happy to play them.

“It is a sign of the progress being made at Brentford that these teams want to come and play us.”