Republic Of Ireland winger Jaden Umeh has urged his team-mates to stay focused and look to top FIFA Under-17 World Cup Group J after they secured progress to the knock-out stages with a game to spare following their come-from-behind victory over Uzbekistan on Saturday.
Umeh starred on the left side of midfield against the Asian champions as Ireland made it two wins from two having beaten Panama 4-1 in their opener.
Uzbekistan edged 1-0 ahead in the 20th minute before Grady McDonnell's towering header levelled the game by half-time. Shamrock Rovers teenage star Michael Noonan then powered home a header to wrap up the win with 15 minutes to play.
Both goals came from the left with the combination of Umeh and his running-mate, raiding full-back Ade Solanke, loading the bullets for McDonnell and Noonan to fire.
Solanke had his work cut out at the defensive end, but he more than made up for any struggles in his own half of the field by providing two killer crosses for, first McDonnell, and then Noonan to score.
Needless to say, Umeh had nothing but praise for his partner on the left side of this exciting Irish side. "Great leaps from both [McDonnell and Noonan], to be fair," the Benfica prospect said after the win.
"I played the ball to Ade twice. He ripped it. You can't underestimate Ade's crossing. He played a big part, overlapping plays, beautiful crosses. Not even the first time he did it in the first game as well. Ade showed great quality out there, so give a big thanks to Ade."
"It was a very challenging game, especially as we were one-nil down in the first half, but the team showed great resilience, and that's the main feature in our team. Everyone kept their heads up, even at one-nil down, we didn't fail to succeed, we came back with two goals."
Umeh reiterated the squad's intention to enjoy the moment but move quickly to the business at hand, which sees them finish their group campaign against Paraguay on Tuesday afternoon at 1.30pm Irish time.
"We're through, it's wonderful moment," Umeh said. "Especially, it's our first time Ireland qualified here for the U17 World cup. So, to qualify now to the round of 32, it's a great achievement.
"The nation will definitely be proud of us, the families that are here, the ones that travelled down as well, so it's a great achievement for Ireland.
"Uzbekistan are a very challenging team. You can never underestimate anyone here, because it's a long way to get the World Cup, so everyone that qualified is a very strong side. You have got to treat everyone with the same mindset.
"We're around six points now, but in that last game, we need to show our qualities once again.
"To get the nine points would be wonderful. So, we have got to go into the game with the same mindset. Don't think about being qualified, we just want to win another game. It's another game to play."
