IRELAND CAN CLINCH a place at the Uefa European U19 Championships this evening, but they need another result to go their way elsewhere.
Taking part in week-long mini-tournament in Belgium, the Boys in Green had the perfect start with a 2-0 win over Italy last Thursday.
However, that was followed up with Saturday’s 3-0 loss at the hands of Sweden. Heading into their final group game against the hosts (kick-off 6pm Irish time), Tom Mohan’s side will be hoping for three points against Belgium coupled with a draw or an Italian victory in their meeting with the Swedes.
If two nations finish on the same points, head-to-head records come into play. Each of the seven groups winners will join host nation Georgia at next year’s finals.
“We’ve had a good recovery day,” said Mohan. “We’ve analysed our own performance against Sweden and to be honest we dominated possession for large periods but just weren’t clinical enough.
“We were disappointed with what we conceded against the Swedes but the big thing was to be alive on the last day. Our first result against Italy gave us that chance.
We will go into our game against Belgium knowing that we can only look after our own game so whatever happens in the other fixture is out of our control.
“Belgium produce high quality players and we can see that once again they have quality in attack but we believe there are weaknesses there that we can exploit with the quality players in our attack.
“It’ll be a case of two teams looking for a win. There are a lot of permutations and we’ll just have to get on with it. All our players are fit and in good spirits so we’re ready for the challenge.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
