Fighting Irish keep Euro hopes alive

Republic of Ireland U19 2 Slovakia U19 2

An injury-time strike from Steven Smith rescued a point in Saturday’s draw with Slovakia after Sam Byrne’s opener was cancelled out by Matus Marcin and then Albert Rusnak scored on 90 minutes.

That result, which came on the back of drawing 2-2 with Switzerland last Thursday, means Doolin’s team need to beat the host nation and hope the Swiss trip up against Slovakia.

“We’re still in it on the last day and it’s a great credit to the players. They have played nine international games and have yet to lose, which is fantastic and it’s all to play for,” said Doolin.

“All you can ask for coming into qualifiers like this is to be in it on the last day and then you see what you can do. We have played really well in our two games and we have one more to go now.”

While the Belgrade heat and short turnaround in games played against Ireland, they showed a lot of spirit in fighting back against a Slovak side, who could just upset the Swiss. “Sometimes you have to have a day when you dig in and get a result — and that’s what they did. They played some fantastic football at times, but so did Slovakia and they are a good team,” said Doolin.

“To ask young players to play two games in three days is very, very difficult. You are coming up against good teams and I don’t think people realised how good our result against Switzerland was, because they are a top team.

“But we’re in it and on effort alone, the players deserve to be going into the Serbia game with a chance. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll give it our best and see how it goes.”

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Lawlor; Long, Sweeney, Smith, Griffin; Baba (Gallagher 57), Miele (Kavanagh 69); McEvoy, Sadlier, Evans (Garmston ht); Byrne.

Booked: Baba 55, Smith 80.

SLOVAKIA: Holec; Habanek, Satka, Pinter, Mazan; Ninaj (Bednarik 83), Lobokta; Smehyi (Ivan 66), Rusnak, Fasko (Mihalik h-t); Marcin.

Booked: Mazan 76, Ivan 90+2.

Referee: O Grinfeld (ISR).