Brady stars as Ireland close on leaders

Ireland U21 2 Liechtenstein U21 0

IRELAND’S U21s easily accounted for Liechtenstein at the Showgrounds last night to move to within three points of the pacesetters in their European Championship qualification group.

Noel King’s side coasted past the group’s bottom seeds on a night when Manchester United teenager Robbie Brady was again the standout performer in the green shirt. Ireland now have an eight-month break from competitive action until next summer when they host joint-leaders Italy and Turkey in the space of two months.

King’s decision to stick with the same starting line-up which beat Liechtenstein 4-1 on their travels was vindicated as Ireland were utterly dominant throughout. Within 12 seconds, the visitors defence was exposed and only a late intervention by defender Fabian Eberle prevented Conor Clifford tapping the ball home from close range.

The dominance was too much for Liechtenstein to handle and Olcay Gür was penalised for dragging Collins to the ground on 13 minutes as the pair challenged for an Aidan White cross.

Up stepped Hull City loanee Robbie Brady to send Caluori the wrong way with his spot-kick.

Eight minutes before the break, Brady embarked on a mazy dribble through the middle before the Hull City loanee teed up winger Aidan White to score his first goal for Ireland.

Liechtenstein hadn’t mustered even a shot on goal in that opening half and the one-way traffic was maintained by Ireland following the turnaround.

It mattered little as Ireland continued in cruise control to claim their third win from four qualifiers so far.

REP OF IRELAND: I. McLoughlin (MK Dons); M. Connolly (Bolton), S. Duffy (Scunthorpe), R. Kiernan (Wigan) capt, G. Cunningham (Man City); R. Towell (Hibernian), C. Clifford (Yeovil Town), A. Barton (Preston); R. Brady (Hull), J. Collins (Shrewsbury), A. White (Leeds).

Subs: Sheppard (Shamrock Rovers) for Collins (72 mins), Hendrick (Derby) for Barton (81 mins), Greene (Sligo) for Clifford (86 mins)

LIECHTENSTEIN: Caluori; Hanselmann, Gur, Flatz, F Eberle; Kieber, L Eberle, Ospelt, Hasler; Wieser, Pirker.

Sub: Brandle for Ospelt (86 mins)

Referee: Edvin Hoxha (ALB)

Attendance: 2,108.

Euro U21 qualifiers: Group 1: Greece 0 Bosnia-Herzegovina 1

Group 5: Croatia 4 Estonia 0, Spain 3 Switzerland 0

Group 6: Poland 0 Moldova 1, Albania 2 Portugal 2

Group 7: Ireland 2 Liechtenstein 0

Group 8: Belgium 2 England 1

Group 9: France 2 Slovakia 0

Group 10: Holland 1 Scotland 2.

International: Brazil 2 (Jonas 39, 59) Egypt 0.