GIANTS STADIUM, LILLE — and now you can add the Belgian town of Hamme to the list.
Ireland’s U19s got the latest phase of their European Championship qualifiers off to the perfect start as they stunned Italy 2-0 this evening.
Goals in either half from Conor Levingston and Ronan Hale gave Tom Mohan’s side all three points in the first of three Elite Round fixtures.
Ireland face Sweden on Saturday before taking on Belgium on Tuesday, with only the top side in the group qualifying for the finals in Georgia in July.
Wolves midfielder Levingston broke the deadlock to give Ireland the lead in the 34th minute, and Hale made sure of the points from the spot 17 minutes from time after Trevor Clarke was brought down in the box by Marco Varnier.
“The boys just keep proving everyone wrong!” tweeted Hale, who is on the books at Birmingham City.
“Unbelievable 2-0 against Italy,” Dan McKenna wrote. “Take the momentum into the next game against Sweden now, lads put in a great shift!”
“We did very well and I’m very pleased for the players,” Mohan said.
“In the first half we were the better side. After we scored we also hit the bar and could have been more than 1-0 up at the break. Italy were always a threat in the second half but our forwards looked very good too.”
He added: “We’ll do the recovery sessions in the morning then take it from there. Our total focus now is Sweden on Saturday and we’ll look at the areas we have to improve.
“This game is gone and it was a job well done but there’s a lot of football to be played in this group.”
IRELAND: Kelleher, O’Keeffe, Masterson, Rice, Wilson, Molumby, Levingston, Mandroiu (McKenna 84), Elbouzedi, Hale, Clarke.
ITALY: Del Favero, Scalera, Varnier, Vogliacco, Llamas, Melegoni, Gabbia (Zaniolo 63), Frattesi, Adjapong (Zanimacchia 75), Cutrone, Tumminello (Pinamonti 75).
Referee: Nikola Dabanovic.
