Luxembourg 0-1 Republic of Ireland
Ireland had the ball in the net in the 28th minute when Danny Kane knocked the ball down for Graham Kelly to steer home but the goal was disallowed for offside.
Despite long periods of domination the Irish did not find the net until the 56th minute when Cork City striker Conor Ellis turned the ball home from a tight angle after a brilliant through pass from Adam McDonnell.
Substitute Ellis then won a penalty in the 66th minute when he was taken down by the home keeper but unfortunately Ellis then produced to miss from the spot-kick.
"Overall I was very pleased as we created plenty of chances and a lot of players put in decent performances," said coach Jim Crawford.
"What we've done with the players this week is give them the template of what we do with the U19s and we've been successful with that as we showed last season with wins against Holland and Sweden.
"We were very good in the second half. Luxembourg never really threatened us but they were trying to play the right way.
"The second half was very good. The heat here made it very difficult and some of the players finished up with their club activities more than four weeks ago.
"They took on board what we asked of them. Conor Ellis and Nathan Corkery both came on and did well while Shane McLaughlin did well in both the No 10 role and wide right.
"We've a lot of players to look at like in the second game such as Dan Casey, Ryan Sweeney, Macauley Keating, Colin McCabe and Jack Tuite so Thursday's game will be another useful exercise."
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: James Talbot, Dominic Bernard, Anthony Breslin, Danny Kane, Stephen Best, Anthony Dolan, Cemal Ramadan, Adam McDonnell, Jessie Devers, Shane Mcloughlin, Graham Kelly.
Subs: Tom Holland for Dolan 50 minutes, Nathan Corkery for Ramadan 50, Conor Ellis for Devers 50, Alex Mulroney-Skinner for Kelly 63.
FIXTURES & RESULTS
Tuesday, June 2
U18 International Friendly
Luxembourg 0-1 Ireland, Hobscheid
Thursday, June 4
U18 International Friendly
Luxembourg v Ireland, Schifflange (6.00pm Irish time) |
