COLIN O’BRIEN’s pre-tournament aim was ensure Ireland were still alive heading into their third and final group match at the Uefa U17 Championship.
After following up Saturday’s defeat to Belgium with a 1-0 win over Denmark, that’s just what they’ve done.
Troy Parrot scored the only goal of the game with five minutes played at St George’s Park, and now attention turns to Friday’s showdown with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“That’s what we said from day one, these tournaments are all about three games,” O’Brien told FAI TV afterwards.
It’s all about being alive in Game 3 and that victory ensures that we are going into the match against Bosnia with the chance of getting out of the group.
“It was a real team performance. We had a positive start with a good goal, we should have had a couple of goals in the second half and we need to take those opportunities. At 1-0, there’s always a chance that they will get a set-play or a counter on you.
“That’s something we need to get better at. Even though the Danes had a lot of the ball in the second half, they found it difficult to penetrate. Everybody stood up and it was a really magnificent performance.”
Goalkeeper Kian Clarke was ruled out of the tournament through injury last night, and O’Brien said the lads were keen to dedicate this win to the Shamrock Rovers stopper.
“Kian has been a warrior for us all season,” he added. “He has contributed massively to us qualifying for the European championships, but he has just had an unfortunate injury.
“He won’t be fit for Game 3 and all the boys wanted to do it for him today, and they did. That was a special moment.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
