Ireland's U17 Euro odyssey comes to end against classy Spain

Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal on the scoresheet to help bring curtain down on memorable run for Colin O'Brien's tyros

RED WAVES: Spain players celebrate their side's first goal during the UEFA European U17 Championship Quarter-Final match between Spain and Republic of Ireland at Hidegkuti Hándor Stadium in Budapest, Hungary. Pic: Laszlo Szirtesi/Sportsfile

U17 Euro quarter-final: Spain 3 Ireland 0 

Ireland’s U17 Euro journey ended at the quarter-final stage tonight after Spain showed their class in Budapest with three unanswered goals, including one from Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal.

While this Spanish side possess their traditional attacking traits, concessions in each of their group games offered hope to the underdogs but apart from a promising spell early in the second half, they didn’t threaten goalkeeper Raúl Jiménez.

Alejandro Granados fired Spain into the lead after 22 minutes before two goals three minutes apart on 69 and 73 by Marc Guiu and Yamal wrapped up a comfortable victory.

Upsetting one of Europe’s powerhouses was a major task but missing out on a World Cup playoff on Tuesday as a consolation compounded a testing night.

Ireland needed England to beat France in the other last-eight tie being contested simultaneously to set up a decider against Switzerland for a place at the tournament in November but Les Bleus grabbed the solitary goal with two minutes left.

As opposed to the winners making five changes to the team that drew with Serbia on Wednesday, Colin O’Brien stuck with the same XI that beat the tournament hosts Hungary 24 hours earlier.

Spain, as expected, bossed possession, with Barca’s youngest ever first-team debutant, Yamal, seeing an early shot blocked by Jake Grante. An attempted chip by Juan Hernandez was repelled by Jason Healy but the breakthrough wasn’t a surprise.

US-based Granados was afforded the space to advance through the centre but his 25-yarder arrowed high beyond the grasp of Healy into the corner.

Ireland gained their first opportunity to test their illustrious opponents when Mason Melia earned a free-kick but despite the goalkeeper flapping at Ike Orazi’s delivery, they failed to capitalise. It took an incisive tackle from Izan Merino to stop Naj Razi’s dribbl into the box as the Irish finished the half strongly.

They maintained that trend after the break with Romeo Akachukwu arriving on cue to meet a left-wing cross, only to angle his shot under pressure into the goalkeeper’s hands.

Any tension in the Spanish ranks vanished when they notched a second, assisted to an extent by sloppy Irish play. A one-two between Freddy Turley and Razi was intercepted by Javier Fernandez, who drove into the box and teed up Marc Guiu to sweep home from close-range.

Minutes later and Healy was collecting the ball from his net again, this time disappointingly getting beaten by a diagonal shot on the run by Yamal after he’d cut in from the right past Cory O’Sullivan.

Late chances for Ireland that fell to Turley and Melia were flashed off target and the defeat was compounded by the message that filtered through from the other game.

IRELAND: J Healy; D Babb, J Grante, F Turley, C O’Sullivan (M Murray 89); L Kehir, D McGrath, R Akachukwu; N Razi (M Moore 77), I Ozari (N Okuson 77); M Melia (A Solanke 89).