Dubai: Seventy-two schools, streets and girls teams from Dubai will battle it out in the du Football Champions (duFC) knock-outs next weekend.

The 72 teams comprise the top 16 sides in the UAE Schools Cup Boys Under-16 and Under-14, 32 Streets Cup teams and eight UAE Girls Challenge teams.

The announcement was made following the final day of Dubai group stages at duFC, where teams were competing for a spot in the knock-outs.

National Charity School played and won two games, scoring three goals against English Private School and Al Safa Secondary School to join the ranks of AIS, French School, International School Choueifat and International School Garhoud amongst others who will battle it out next week for the final two spots in the national semi-finals.

In the Under-14 category Rashid Bin Saeed from Hatta beat Al Sadiq Islamic School 7-0 and International School of Arts and Sciences 2-1 to lead their group and move forward along with DESC, French School, International School of Choueifat and last year’s winners Philadelphia Private.

In the UAE Streets Cup, Ultimate XL beat Nike Academy 2-1 to make it through to the next round, while Victorious scored an incredible nine goals against Raiders to get through along with Goal Diggers, Santos, Al Nujoom, m4 and others to make 32 teams going into the final Dubai knock-outs.

In the Girls Challenge, top girls team Adastra played two solid matches beating Philadelphia Private School 6-0 and Locus 7-0 and looking like fantastic contenders for the national semi-finals where they will meet winners from Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates. Other teams moving forward include Go Pro Sports, Fusion FC, St Mary’s Catholic School and PSG among others.

Speaking about the development of talents at the du La Liga High Performance Centre (HPC), head coach Rafael Sanchez said: “The talents we are looking for at duFC are those who possess technical and physical skills combined with maturity and intelligence, able to set up play and work as a team. We have seen many youths with great potential this season from across the UAE and we are especially looking forward to welcoming the U14 age group to join the older age group at du La Liga HPC.”