Ireland ready to spring a surprise in women’s U17 Uefa Championship qualifier

Republic of Ireland women’s U17 manager Dave Connell believes that his side can spring a surprise or two in this week’s elite qualifying round for the Uefa Championships.

Ireland play England tonight at Turner’s Cross (kick-off 7pm), before further games against the Netherlands on Saturday and Hungary on Tuesday.

They come into the matches on the back of two friendly wins over Iceland — who will host the finals — and even though Ireland are ranked third in the group with only one to qualify, Connell is optimistic.

“That’s the kind of belief that we try to instil in the girls,” he said.

“We have DVDs of the three countries that we’re playing. We’ve concentrated on England and that’s the way it’ll be until after Thursday.

“We could surprise a few people, the girls seem eager to get on the pitch, England is always a special game but that can be counter-productive and go the opposite way sometimes. We feel that we have them rightly tuned in to the job in hand.”

Tonight, Connell hopes to put in place a system which can frustrate the visitors.

“We have our system and the way we play,” he said, “but we’ll tweak a few things, based on the way England play. We know what they’re good at doing and we know where we feel we can get at them so that’s what we’ve worked on.”

Last year, Ireland’s U19s — also managed by Connell — reached the European semi-finals. He feels that such achievements aren’t truly recognised.

“There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “People don’t realise how difficult it is, we know how amazing it was to get to a semi-final but outside of us it might be taken with a grain of salt.

“Considering the structures other countries have and the finance behind them, it’s very difficult for the likes of us.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Connell’s assistant, Dave Bell.

“The U19s had a magnificent achievement and, in my opinion, didn’t get the praise they deserved for what they had to do and how they had to achieve it,” he said.

“For Ireland to get to the finals last year was incredible because it’s a lot more difficult, there was a record entry of countries, 54 in all, so if you get in the top eight you’re doing very well.

“To reach the semi-finals then was a magnificent achievement.”