THE DRAW FOR UEFA U21 championships qualifying groups was made in Switzerland this afternoon.
Placed in Pot D as fourth seeds, Noel King’s Ireland are among the 52 nations hoping to earn a spot at the finals in Poland in 2017.
And the Boys and Green have been handed a difficult group after being drawn with Italy as well as Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Andorra.
Five-time winners Italy will no doubt be favourites to progress, having finished runners-up to Spain at the 2013 European championships. The Azzurri are these days managed by former Roma and Inter Milan midfielder Luigi Di Biagio, who earned 31 international caps between 1998 and 2002.
Three years ago, a double from Aaron Doran and Conor Henderson’s stunner helped Ireland to a 4-2 win over Italy in Casarano after the teams had played out a 2-2 draw at the Showgrounds.
“It’s obviously a tough draw because Serbia are European champions at the 1994 age group so the second seed is as strong as any top seed,” said King. ”Italy will always be at top seed level.
Having said that, there is no team in the group that I wouldn’t have realistic ambition of getting something from.
“We took four points from six with Italy when we played them with the 1990 age-group so it shows we can take points from them but I’m sure they’ll be just as aware of that fact as we are.”
Ireland have never managed to qualify for a finals at this age level before but King is optimistic about their chances ahead of next month’s opener at home to Andorra.
“We have to believe we can get out of the group. Italy and Serbia are major powers so they’ll be the top teams for everybody but I’ll be setting the target of topping the group if we can. I know that’s some statement to make but we have to believe we can do it,” he said.
We’ll start off against Andorra, we’ll be the favourites for that but we have to produce a performance to justify that.
“After we play Andorra home and away we have Lithuania at home next and while we’ll have to learn more about that I’d expect we’ll be favourites for that too before we play Italy.
“I’m very much looking forward to the campaign. There’s nothing like the real thing. Our analyst Gary Seery has already got a lot of information about the teams we’ll be facing and we’ll be very well prepared for the first game next month.”
