Sean McCaffrey has unveiled his Under-19 squad for the double-header friendly against Ukraine in Dublin on Monday, August 9 and Wednesday, August 11.
Manchester United winger Robbie Brady, part of last season's Under-19 squad which brought their qualification bid to the final game of elite stage, is chosen along with his Old Trafford clubmate Sean McGinty, who captained the Irish Under-17s last term.
Republic of Ireland Under-19 Squad
Sean McDermott - Arsenal
Aaron McCarey - Wolverhampton Wanderers
Declan Walker - Wrexham
John Egan - Sunderland
Joe Shaughnessy - Aberdeen
Anthony O'Connor - Blackburn Rovers
Sean McGinty - Manchester United
Derrick Williams - Aston Villa
Carl McHugh - Reading
Daryl Horgan - Salthill Devon
Shane Byrne - Leicester City
Stephen McDonnell - Dundalk
Jeff Hendrick - Derby County
Liam Irwin - Bolton Wanderers
Craig Walsh - Shamrock Rovers
Stephen Folan - Newcastle United
Patrick McEleney - Derry City
Robbie Brady - Manchester United
Michael Rafter - Colchester United
Ryan Connolly - Derby County
Ireland Under-17 manager Sean McCaffrey has announced a squad of 18 players to participate in the upcoming eight-nation friendly tournament in Hungary from August 4-7.
McCaffrey and his panel will fly to Budapest on Monday to prepare for the opening fixture two days later, August 4, against Croatia in Telki (17.00 hrs).
Ireland Under-17 Squad
Joe Coll - Manchester United
Ian Lawlor - Manchester City
Sean Kavanagh - Belvedere
Luke Gallagher - Cherry Orchard
Pierce Sweeney - Belvedere
Joe O'Brien - Salthill Devon
Steven Smith - Arsenal
Tommy Hoban - Watford
Conor Pepper - Portmarnock
Kenneth McEvoy - Tottenham Hotspur
Gareth Brady - Belvedere
Kealan Dillon - Derby County
Darragh Lenihan - Belvedere
Jack Grealish - Aston Villa
Carel TioFack - Ipswich Town
James Murphy - Reading
Philip Roberts - Arsenal
Sam Byrne - St Joseph's Boys
Sean McCaffrey's Irish U19 team defeated Bosnia & Herzegovina 1-0 in their final European Championship qualifier courtesy of a Conor Clifford penalty in Kiev on Monday.
However that victory was not enough to secure qualification to this summer's finals in France as England sealed their place in the eight team finals with a 1-1 draw with Ukraine at the Borodinka venue in Kiev. Chelsea midfielder, Conor Clifford scored the only goal from the spot after 68 minutes- his second in as many matches as Ireland claimed second spot in group 3 ahead of European champions, Ukraine.
In a one-sided encounter, it was Ireland who created most of the scoring opportunities throughout the game as they looked to build on their goal difference which they hoped would help their qualification hopes had Ukraine defeated England 1-0.
Daniel Kearns had the games first real opportunity after 11 minutes when he skipped away from his marker on the right wing and his shot from the outside of his right-foot flashed agonisingly across the face of goal. Three minutes later, Conor Henderson tested their opponents keeper, Tino Divkovic with a stunning free-kick from 25 yards which the keeper tipped wide for a corner.
Mervue United keeper, Ger Hanley was called into action in the 15th minute when midfielder, Zlomislić powered a free-kick towards goal but the Galway man was on-hand to avert the danger. Galway United striker, Karl Sheppard had a glorious opportunity to open the scoring in the 24th minute when Conor Henderson cleverly chipped the ball over the defence which allowed Sheppard through one-on-one with Divkovic who raced off his line and blocked the powerful shot from point-blank range.
A minute later, Bosnia & Herzegovina striker, Pandza found himself in space inside the Irish box and with the goal at his mercy, he scuffed his shot and the ball dribbled wide of Hanley's post.
Arsenal's Conor Henderson had another opportunity to break the deadlock just before the break when his 25 yard shot was just off-target as Divkovic scrambled to cover his angles. Bosnia & Herzegovina defender, Alić was dismissed by the referee in the 44th minute when he performed a two-footed lunge on Irish midfielder, Daniel Kearns. The referee made no hesitation and gave the defender a straight red for dangerous play.
Ireland started the second half with the same vigor that they finished the first period. Chelsea's Conor Clifford had two remarkable long-range efforts within minutes of eachother as he struck the crossbar after 56 minutes from over 20 yards and two minutes later he had a similar effort which went just to the left and wide.
As Ireland pushed forward in numbers, it gave Bosnia & Herzegovina a number of opportunities to attack on the break and amazingly, striker, Pandza was guilty of missing another glorious chance as he fluffed his lines in front of Ireland's goal with just Ger Hanley to beat.
Bosnia & Herzegovina keeper, Divkovic was being kept busy by the attacking Irish and he pulled-off two remarkable saves, first from substitute Harry Crawford and then from Karl Sheppard who found space inside the box but the keeper was on-hand to scramble the ball clear and keep the game scoreless.
Ireland made the breakthrough in the 67th minute when Sunderland's Conor Hourihane won his side a penalty when he made a darting run into the opponents box and he was cynically hauled down by defender, Hadžić. Conor Clifford scored his second penalty in as many matches as he calmly put the ball to the keepers left to give Ireland the lead.
Ireland were unable to build on their lead in the final quarter of the game due to the stubbornness of the Bosnia & Herzegovina defence. Substitute, Ronan Murray looked very lively after his introduction after 69 minutes and he had an opportunity to score with ten minutes remaining but his shot was blocked by an on-rushing defender. From the resulting corner, Irish defender, John Dunleavy came agonisingly close when he headed over from three yards as he out-stretched his marker to get his head to the ball.
Republic of Ireland: Ger Hanley, Richard Towell, John Dunleavy, Sean McGinty, Shane McEleney, Conor Hourihane, Conor Clifford, Conor Henderson, Daniel Kearns, Shaun Timmins, Karl Sheppard.
Substitutes: Ian McLoughlin, Ronan Murray (on for Karl Sheppard,69 mins) , Stephen McDonnell, Andrew Boyle, Harrison Crawford (on for Daniel Kearns, 46 mins), James Keohane (on for Shaun Timmins, 33mins).
Ireland U19 captain, Conor Clifford has backed his team to defy all of the odds and reach this summer's UEFA Championship finals in France as they complete their UEFA Championship, elite qualifying phase with a game against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday in Kiev. Ireland must defeat Bosnia & Herzegovina by four goals or more and hope that reigning European Champions, Ukraine defeat England 1-0 in the other game in group 3 to ensure qualification for the ‘Boys in Green.'
Sean McCaffrey's side were defeated 1-0 by England in the group's opening game while they bounced back to stun reigning European Champions, Ukraine with a 1-0 victory in Kiev last Friday. Bosnia & Herzegovina have struggled in group 3 to date with a 4-1 defeat to Ukraine which was followed up with a 4-0 defeat to England.
Chelsea star, Clifford said, "Qualification to this summer's finals is very much alive. Obviously we are relying on Ukraine doing us a favour in the final game but none of us are thinking about that - we are just concentrating on getting the result we need against Bosnia & Herzegovina. I think that getting an early goal will be vital in settling the team into the game. That would put the opposition under pressure and hopefully force a few errors. The Bosnian team haven't had the easiest time of it over here, they haven't come here to make up the numbers, they will be playing for pride and will want to go back home with points on the board," he said.
Clifford added, "In my opinion, Ukraine have an excellent chance in their game against England. Let's not forget that they are the current champions and they will be hoping to advance to the finals in front of their own supporters. They are a strong, physical side and they are very capable of taking the ball down and playing it around on the ground. There are a lot of twists and turns left in this group yet, be sure of that. Our result against England was a major set-back for all of the players and the staff in the team. We firmly believed that we should have least got a positive result in that game but that disappointment really spurred us on for the second game against Ukraine. The lads were fantastic, we all worked for each other on the field and to get a win against all the odds, especially with ten men was indescribable."
Chelsea's Youth captain, Clifford has been in instrumental form for club and country this season which he capped with the winning goal for Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup final against Aston Villa, "At the beginning of the season, I wrote down all of my goals that I wanted to achieve at Chelsea this year and thankfully they were all achieved. I started every game for the reserve team and to finish the season lifting the FA Youth Cup in front of all my family and friends at Stamford Bridge was an unbelievable achievement. That being said, that feat might be overshadowed if we were to qualify for this summer's UEFA Championship. A couple of the players here have already experienced the UEFA Championship finals at U17 level and it is something we want to repeat. Every player wants to experience the high intensity and the huge crowds associated with the finals and we will ensure that we are in a position to rely on Ukraine's result against England in the final game, which will hopefully see us through to the finals.
Clifford added, "Most of the players in this squad have been playing together for a number of years at international level with some notable success, especially at U17 level. Unfortunately, we have had to deal with a large number or withdrawals due to injury and players with other commitments. I believe that if we had a full squad we would have qualified but we can still do it. This is a great group of players who have been together for a number of seasons under Sean McCaffrey and his staff which has been very enjoyable. It would be a fitting tribute for everybody involved to finish the season with an unprecedented place at this European finals," he said.
Republic of Ireland Under-19 Squad:
Ger Hanley - Mervue United
Ian McLoughlin - Ipswich Town
Richie Towell - Celtic
Johnny Dunleavy - Wolverhampton Wanderers
Andy Boyle - UCD
Sean McGinty - Manchester United
Shaun Timmins - Birmingham City
Shane McEleney - Derry City
Conor Clifford - Chelsea
Conor Henderson - Arsenal
Conor Hourihane - Sunderland
Daniel Kearns - West Ham United
Jimmy Keohane - Wexford Youths
Robbie Brady - Manchester United *
Ronan Murray - Ipswich Town
Harry Crawford - Southend United.
Stephen McDonnell - Dundalk
Karl Sheppard - Galway United
*Suspended
Under-17 Friendly International
Ireland 2-0 Hungary
IRELAND: Sean McDermott (Arsenal); Michael Barker (Belvedere), Richard Bryan (Aston Villa), Sean McGinty (Manchester United), Carl McHugh (Reading); Daniel Purdy (West Ham United), Frankie Sutherland (QPR), Shane Byrne (Leicester City), Anton Rogers (Chelsea); David Murphy (Reading), George Smith (Southend United).
Substitutions: Neil Yadolahi (Burnley) for Barker and Kevin Knight (Leicester City) for G. Smith (both h/t), Callum Webb (Arsenal) for Rodgers (66 mins), Conor Smith (Watford) for Purdy (68 mins)
Ireland Under-17 side recorded a comfortable victory over Hungary at Tolka Park on Tuesday in the first of this week's double-header friendly.
Goals by Frankie Sutherland and Daniel Purdy gave the Irish a morale-booting result to put them in confident mood for next month's UEFA Championship elite phase qualifiers in Greece.
The shooting power of Sutherland was on show from as early as the eight minute when the Queen's Park Rangers midfielder unleashed a shot from 25 yards which sailed inches over the crossbar.
Seven minutes later, Hungary sensed an opening when the home defence retreated to allow Fejes have a pot at goal. His effort took a deflection off the outstretched leg of Irish captain Sean McGinty into the path of Laszlo Erdelyi but he sliced wide from a good position.
The Hungarians were beginning to carry the greater threat in attack and gave Ireland a couple of scares inside a minute. Bence Serfozo's effort only veered wide due to McGinty's intervention on 19 minutes and, from the resulting corner, Vecsei was unmarked at the back post but couldn't direct his header on target.
However, Ireland absorbed that pressure and took control for the remainder of the first half. On 23 minutes, they were awarded a penalty when striker David Murphy was bundled over by visiting goalkeeper David Haladas Dombo but the stopper redeemed himself by diving low to his right to keep out Daniel Purdy's spot-kick.
A minute after Ireland had an appeal for another penalty turned down as Sutherland went to ground, the midfielder fired the Irish ahead on 35 minutes.
Purdy was upended by Ferenc Toth in a central position on the edge of the area and Sutherland stepped up to curl the free-kick over the wall into the top corner past the despairing dive of Dombo.
Ireland manager Sean McCaffrey made two changes at the break, bringing on Neil Yadolahi and Kevin Knight for Michael Barker and George Smith.
Burnley full-back Yadolahi got himself in a spot of bother soon after his introduction when Patrik Vass dispossessed him on the left but the Hungarian captain was unable to match his darting run with the finish and his shot drifted past the far post.
Ireland continued to live dangerously and might have been punished for a poor clearance to the edge of the box on 55 minutes yet Laszlo Erdelyi hurried his shot which angled wide of the upright.
Irish goalkeeper Sean McDermott was called into action to save at the back post from Serfozo just past the hour but Ireland added their second on 66 minutes.
Right-winger Daniel Purdy played a one-two with David Murphy and cut into the box before firing across Dombo and into the bottom right corner.
Late on, Ireland came agonisingly close to making it 3-0 as substitute Conor Smith played in Murphy but the Reading forward couldn't keep his shot down.
Ireland Under-17 manager Sean McCaffrey has today named an 18 man squad for the Under-17 UEFA qualifying first phase qualifiers in Bulgaria later this month.
Ireland will play against the host nation Bulgaria, Latvia and Sweden with the aim of securing a top-two finish in the group to progress into the Elite section of the qualifying series.
Ireland Under-17 Squad
Sean McDermott - Arsenal
Jack Bonham - Watford
Ben Glasgow - Arsenal
Michael Barker - Belvedere
Richard Bryan - Aston Villa
Derrick Williams - Aston Villa
Neil Yadolahi - St. Kevin's Boys
Sean McGinty - Manchester United
Brian McGroary - Wolverhampton Wanderers
Shane Byrne - Leicester City
Carl McHugh - Reading
Frankie Sutherland - QPR
Callum Webb - Arsenal
Anton Rodgers - Chelsea
Kevin Knight - Leicester City
George Smith - Southend United
Daniel Purdy - West Ham United
Aiden O'Brien - Millwall.
