England U17s 1-0 Republic of Ireland U17s
A battling performance from Ireland was not enough to prevent a 1-0 defeat to England in the U17 European Championship quarter-finals in Croatia.
A first-half wonder strike from Manchester City's Jadon Sancho proved the difference between the sides in sun drenched Zagreb as Colin O’Brien’s side finished with 10 men after Aaron Bolger was dismissed for a second yellow with two minutes left on the clock.
After the 7-0 loss to Germany last time out, there were fears in some quarters that Ireland would struggle against an impressive English outfit, but they showed no fear, and nearly equalised when Joe Redmond saw his volley cleared off the line with eight minutes remaining.
It wasn’t to be, however, and it is England who march on to take their place in the semi-finals.
Head coach Colin O’Brien heaped praise on his squad, saying: "I’m very proud of all the players and staff.
"Everybody played as a team. We knew it was going to be a tough game and we knew we’d have to concede possession for long periods. England are a high quality team that I expect to go far in this competition.
"Defensively we were far better. Our boys are after getting huge experience from these finals. It’s the furthest Ireland have reached in a long time.
"We had six players in that squad that are underage again next year that have got huge experience. The older guys go onto the Under-18 side now and I’ve no doubt some will push into the Under-19s. That can only be good for our players going forward for European competitions.
The defeat signalled the end of a 10-game campaign, with Ireland winning seven of those matches to get to the quarter-final stage. Overall, O’Brien has been pleased with what the squad has achieved this season.
"We’ve got the maximum out of our season," he added. "That was one of the objectives at the start of the year.
"People might not realise that we’ve got to get out of two qualifying campaigns just to get to the finals and they are very tricky assignments.
"For us to get to a European finals, we are a small nation, we don’t have a huge pick, we have to be realistic when we are playing bigger nations. To get the opportunity to play some of the countries we’ve played in the last couple of weeks has been great for our players’ future and that’s really important."
