Belgium 2 – 2 Republic of Ireland
The Republic of Ireland U18 team fell behind to Belgium when they conceded an early goal in the quadrangular tournament in Mafra, outside Lisbon and they had to stage a dramatic second half recovery to salvage a draw.
Ireland’s manager, Sean McCaffrey, made several changes to the team that had beaten Georgia 3 – 1 on Thursday as he sought to give every player in the squad an opportunity of gaining more international experience.
McCaffrey is preparing for the UEFA U19 Championship qualifiers which will kick-off next September.
Belgium succeeded in extending their first half lead over Ireland with a second goal early in the second half and the Irish appeared to face an impossible task.
But Ireland's experimental team responded in the best possible fashion and two goals within a minute from David Hutton ('Spurs) and Michael Spillane (Norwich City) helped Ireland draw the match.
Coincidentally, Georgia also led in their match against Portugal at half-time.
Portugal had won their opening match 3 – 0 against Belgium but they were rocked on their heels when Georgia snatched a first half goal and held on tenaciously to deny Portugal's attempted recovery in the second half.
Ireland will play Portugal on Sunday and Belgium will play Georgia.
Republic of Ireland
Shane Redmond - Notts Forest
Cian Hughton Tottenham Hotspur
Michael Spillane - Norwich City
Brendan Maloney - Notts Forest
Ian Bermingham - Lourdes Celtic
James Berrett - Huddersfield Town
Ryan Carolan - Crystal Palace
Paul Cahillane - Glasgow Celtic
Ruairi Harkin - Charlton Athletic
Daniel Corcoran – Belvedere
Craig Mahon - Wigan Athletic
Subs
Paul Skinner -Celtic on for Shane Redmond (45 Mins)
Corie Treacy - Notts Forest on for Hughton (45 Mins)
Mark O`Toole - Norwich City on for Bermingham (45 Mins)
Karl Byrne - Plymouth Argyle on for Berrett (45 Mins)
David Hutton - Tottenham Hotspur on for Mahon (45 Mins)
Michael Liddle - Sunderland on for Harkin (70 Mins) |
