U21 boss Crawford not keen on senior SOS if play-offs beckon  

Republic of Ireland U21 boss Jim Crawford

Jim Crawford says there are no plans to parachute any of Stephen Kenny’s senior Republic of Ireland players back into the U21 ranks if his young team finds itself in a playoff for the Euro 2023 finals.

Crawford’s side take on Italy in Ascoli tomorrow with that playoff spot already secured but with the top spot still up for debate. Win that last Group F game and Ireland would go through automatically to next year’s tournament.

A draw (or a win of their own) will do the Azzurri and if it comes to pass that Ireland don’t get the required result to book their spot this week then there are any number of talents in the senior squad who would still qualify for the underage grade's playoffs.

The number of players still eligible for U21 who have already been promoted to Kenny’s senior squad is touching double figures, with Gavin Bazunu and Troy Parrott among them, but wholesale change does not look likely.

“Nothing has been said to me, no discussion has been had,” said Crawford. “The way I see it now is that the group that has got us to second place in the group table deserve a chance and each and every one of them have been excellent in everything they have done with regard to team meetings, training sessions, performances when it mattered.

“For me there is a little bit of bigger thinking on our part. We brought in Tayo (Adamarola) from Crystal Palace, Joe Hodge and Darragh Burns, Sinclair Armstrong, younger lads, to give them a taste of competitive football, albeit in the environment: the way we train, what’s expected of them.

“So, when the finals come next year they could play a huge role in that. So, with regards to senior players coming back, I don’t know, but we have certainly got some good players that are coming from behind so we’re in good shape.” 

Midfielder Conor Coventry insists that the pressure is all on the hosts whose 1-1 draw away to Sweden last Thursday left the group favourites within touching distance of qualification while eliminating the Swedes and guaranteeing Ireland second place.

“We’re coming here with nothing to lose really,” said Coventry who spent last season loan with Peterborough United and MK Dons from parent club West Ham. “They’re top. We’ve got the playoff confirmed.

“So it’s more to lose for them, I think, to lose that top spot whereas we can’t drop out of the playoffs. So the pressure is on them really, there’s no pressure on us. So we’ll see how that affects them.” Ireland’s ambitions looked shot last November after they lost 2-0 to the Azzurri in Tallaght. They had already lost away to Montenegro and dropped points in Luxembourg but the response has been superb.

Wins home and away against Sweden followed and there were no slip-ups earlier this month when they scored six times and conceded only once when adding six points to their tally against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Coventry is adamant that another win is the goal in Italy tomorrow. Do that and they will be the first Irish U21 side to make a major finals but the bottom line is that all their successes will be in vain if they don’t make Euro 2023 one way or another.

“We don't want to be a team that nearly did it, or got so close, we want to qualify. We'd love to do it here on Tuesday. That's the aim. We're coming here to win, we're not coming here to have a good game or to practise anything for a play-off, we're coming here to win.” The visitors have little in the way of injury issues to concern them. Centre-back Oisin McEntee is the only real absence. He misses out as a result of the injury he suffered against the Bosnians ten days ago.

Crawford echoed Coventry’s take on their progress thus far.

“It’s a fantastic achievement making the play-offs but our demands won’t stop there. We’ve got a real opportunity now to go and top the group,” said the manager who couldn’t bear to watch most of the Sweden-Italy game in Helsingborg.

“It’s not going to be easy because Italy are the best team in the group by a distance, albeit they did draw twice with Sweden. The amount of chances they created on Thursday shows the potential that they have in getting goalscoring opportunities.”