Ireland's U16s lose despite second-half comeback

Republic of Ireland 2-5 France

The Republic of Ireland Under-16s staged a second-half revival against France today in Dublin, but still lost to a strong French side.

In the second match of this week’s double-header at the Oscar Traynor Centre, three goals in the opening half provided France with an adequate buffer and they managed to pick off Ireland's fight-back by adding two late goals.

Richard Bryon and Chris Lyons were on target for Ireland.

France took the lead after eleven minutes when Irish captain, Robert Maloney played a back pass to goalkeeper Alan Smith but French attacker Anthony Koura was quick to close down the keeper and slotted the ball into the net.

Smith came to Ireland’s rescue after 14 minutes when the French side staged an impressive counter attack from defence.

Alvin Arrondel played a cutting through-ball to William le Pogam who beat the Irish off-side trap and ran through on goal but his shot was pawed away by Smith from close range.

From the resulting corner, Geoffrey Komdogbia doubled France’s advantage. The Irish failed to clear an in-swinging corner from Arrondel and Komdogbia was on hand to blast the breaking ball into the net with his left foot after 15 minutes.

Anthony Koura scored his second goal of the game for the French after 35 minutes. The influential Jean-Christophe Bahebeck was on hand to play a clever through-ball to Koura who ran through on goal and blasted past Smith, giving him no chance.

Ireland almost grabbed one goal back before half time, John O’Sullivan made a darting run down the right hand side and he cut back to Daniel Mahon in the box who controlled the ball but his left-footed effort went just wide of Maxime Dupe’s post.

Substitutes Daniel McGuinness and Carl McHugh went close to finding a goal for Ireland in the early stages of the second half but they did get a deserved breakthrough on 65 minutes when Richard Bryan smashed the ball high into net following a flick on by McGuinness at the near post.

Aston Villa centre-half Bryon suffered a dose of bad luck when, only nine minutes after scoring at one end, he diverted a right-cross beyond his own goalkeeper Sean McDermott for an own goal.

France substitute Yaya Sanogo connected with Bahebeck’s clever free-kick to fire home the fifth goal with three minutes left before Chris Lyons pulled another goal back for the Irish deep into stoppage time from the penalty spot.

REP OF IRELAND: Alan Smith (Crumlin United); Conor Morrissey (Waterford Bohs), Neil Yadolahi (St. Kevin’s Boys), Richard Bryan (Aston Villa), Robert Maloney (St. Joseph's Boys); Daniel Purdy (Crumlin United), Callum Webb (Arsenal), Roy Collins (Ringmahon Rangers), David Murphy (All Blacks); John O’Sullivan (Belvedere), Daniel Mahon (Belvedere).

Substitutions: Sean McDermott (Vag FK) for Smith, Daniel McGuinness (Crumlin) for Murphy and Carl McHugh (Dungloe Town) for Collins (all half-time), Brian McGroary (Eanny Celtic) for Purdy (57 mins), Shane Byrne (Leicester City) for Webb, Ellis Tebbutt (Leicester City) for Mahon and Chris Lyons (Belvedere) for O’Sullivan (all 76 mins).

FRANCE: Maxime Dupe, Gael Vena Diambu, Alvin Arrondel, Geoff Komdogbia, Jean-Christophe Bahebeck, William Le Pogam, Mamadou Doucoure, Anthony Koura, Jeremy Obin, Florin Bischoff, Jerome Roussillon.