From apathy to uncharted territory...now Crawford craves the final push 

After 34 years of underachievement, Ireland's U21s find themselves 180 minutes away from history with Israel standing in their way

Final prep: Manager Jim Crawford speaking to players during a Republic of Ireland U21 training session at Tallaght Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Jim Crawford’s U21s have spent 18 months scrambling to be the first Republic of Ireland side to make a major finals at their grade. Account for Israel across two legs in the next five days and the campaign will stretch through to June and Euro 2023 in Georgia and Romania.

“As I said to the players already, it's 17 attempts to get this far with the 21s,” said Crawford. “I think that's 34 years of playing U21s football and this is the furthest we've got. So we're two games away from a place in the final. It's uncharted territory.” Their predecessors would agree.