The Republic of Ireland Under-21s are in "a nice place" according to head coach Jim Crawford after taking a big step towards European Championship qualification with a 3-1 victory over Montenegro at Tallaght Stadium.
The Boys in Green are up to second in Group F in the race to reach the 2023 finals tournament, two points above Sweden and one behind Italy who occupy the automatic qualification place.
Should Sweden fail to beat Italy on Thursday, Ireland will be assured of a play-off place at least. If Italy were to slip up in Helsingborg, Crawford's team will go to Ascoli next Tuesday knowing a victory against the Azzurri would seal a historic passage to a first major tournament for an Irish side at Under-21 level.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport in Tallaght after seeing off the Montenegrins, Crawford acknowledged the promising position his squad have put themselves in.
"We've never put up the group table in team meetings, we never spoke about it. We just took each game for its own merits," he said.
"So it will be nice now to sit back and see what happens between Sweden and Italy on the Thursday which will change a lot of things for ourselves.
"Because if it's a draw, we can go on and win the group and if Sweden win, we've got to go to Italy and win and if we win, there's every chance we'll win the group. We're in a nice place that's for sure."
Crawford added that his team had proved doubters wrong after setbacks earlier in the campaign.
"The lads have been getting better and better every window we've come in," he said.
"There was a time where people were asking questions when we went away to Montenegro and got beaten, went over to Luxembourg and we drew.
"But we missed penalties that would have changed the game and we would have accumulated more points if we'd scored the two penalties that we missed.
Manager Jim Crawford can be very proud of his #IRLU21 side after their 3-1 win over Montenegro. pic.twitter.com/x9hrZSvyVj
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) June 6, 2022
"At that stage, I knew there were people asking questions but the staff and the players themselves knew that we could get to the play-offs at least and we're in a good place now."
The win over Montenegro followed a vital 3-0 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina last Friday, but Crawford was glad to see his side put in a much improved showing three days on.
"For me, it was a lot better than the other night, but the most important thing was getting the three points," said Crawford, adding that his side produced some "good passages of play" across the 90 minutes.
"We'll start getting ready now for the game against Italy."
Five changes were made for the game, with Derby County's Eiran Cashin and Crystal Palace's Tayo Adaramola drafted in for debuts, and the head coach was satisfied with the incoming players' contributions as the team took a step towards a top-two finish.
"It's a squad game. It's the squad that's going to get us over the line in this and they just proved it," he said.
"I'm sure there are people saying, 'They've made too many changes from a winning team', but we had to because the game on Friday was a 7.30pm kick-off and today was 5pm so it was even less time than normal to recover.
"The boys that came in today did excellent and there were two lads making their debuts. They were very, very good."
