IRELAND’S U19s KICK off their quest for qualification to the 2013 European championships with manager Paul Doolin desperate for a solid start in their opening fixture today.

The Boys in Green are one of 48 teams vying for a spot at the finals in Lithuania next August but must first earn a place in the elite qualifying stage by progressing from this week’s mini-tournament in Luxembourg.

First up is a meeting with the hosts in Hesperange this evening (6pm Irish time) before games against Macedonia and Germany, who make up the Group Five.

And with two nations plus the third-placed side with the best record against the successful pair going through, Doolin is well aware of getting points on the board early.

“I’ve always said this, the biggest thing of all is the first game,” Doolin told TheScore.ie. “If you can get a victory in that you are on the way. I won’t be thinking about Macedonia or Germany until that one is out of the way. The first game is always crucial.

“It would be easy to assume, and I’m sure some people may look at it from the outside as being a bit of a cake-walk.

“Luxembourg are managed by a German and have been training four nights a week together. I watched them a couple of weeks ago against Romania and they were well-organised. They had a few good chances and should have scored.

“It will not be easy. Their senior team recently drew with Northern Ireland and this team have a  couple of the players who were with that squad.

It’s the first game, they’ll have their tails up as the host country but we will try to beat them. We’re going there and we’re hoping to qualify.”

His team line out in the Alphonse Thei Stadium tonight having met as a group for the first time for a 1-1 draw with Latvia last month but Doolin has spent the past three days trying to get his message across in training.

“We took 18 players to Riga and in fairness to them they played quite well against Latvia for a group that hadn’t played together at all,” he added. “I’m just hoping that we can reinforce what we did there over the couple of days.

“If we can play like we did in the last game, we’ll do well. The only negative point I could make about that game is that we missed a number of chances. If we could put those away that will give us a real chance.”

Doolin has had to deal with a number of injuries since naming his original squad. Kealon Dillon (Hull City) and Steven Smith (Leicester City) have replaced the injured Kenneth McEvoy (Tottenham Hotspur) and Ryan O’Reilly (Stoke City) while Cork City’s Brian Lenihan has been forced out due to a back problem and fellow Airtricity League defender Colm Horgan of SD Galway takes his place.

The Ireland squad in full:

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