U21s lose to Portugal

Portugal U21s 2 Republic of Ireland U21s 0

Irish U21s manager Don Givens’ young guns crashed to a third straight defeat to further dent their confidence.

Two first-half goals from Boavista striker Hugo Almeida were enough to add to Givens’ woes at the Municipal Stadium in Rio Maior after ending last year with European Championship qualifying losses to Switzerland and France.

Givens, though, was without a number of first-choice players, with Stephen Elliott and Aiden McGeady promoted to the seniors, while Liam Kearney, Kevin Doyle and Daryl Murphy have only recently returned to pre-season training with their eircom League sides.

Givens chose to omit Paddy McCarthy as he is suspended for next month’s qualifier with Israel in Tel Aviv, instead opting to find a new centre-back, while Jay Tabb, Patrick Kohlmann and Marcus Painter were ruled out through injury.

It led to six players making their debuts, with Mark Quigley and Michael Timlin in the starting line-up, with Joe O’Brien, Saul Deeney, John McAliskey and David Bell coming off the bench.

Given the experimental nature of the side, it was clear they were still getting to know one another when Almeida opened the scoring in the 16th minute.

Porto’s Ricardo Quaresma provided the perfect cross to the far post for an unmarked Almeida to comfortably head home from six yards past Wayne Henderson.

After Millwall striker Quigley spurned a superb chance to equalise five minutes later when he fired wide with only the goalkeeper to beat, Almeida doubled Portugal’s lead in the 32nd minute, albeit in controversial circumstances.

Quaresma was again the provider and this time Almeida appeared easily offside, but no flag was raised and he went on to drill home a firm shot from the edge of the area.

But for a superb block from Henderson two minutes later, Almeida would have had a hat-trick, before Quigley toe-poked wide another opportunity six minutes from the break.

Ireland managed to hold their own after the interval, although Portugal continued to have the best of the opportunities, with their most clear-cut in the 55th minute when John Fitzgerald cleared off the line from Varela.

Givens was naturally disappointed as he said: “It was not a good performance, although we won’t be getting too wound up about their second goal.

“Overall, I thought Mark Quigley had a good game up front on his debut, while Stephen Kelly in the back four did well under a lot of pressure.”