'We practised penalties every day' but Jim Crawford still experienced Ireland shootout pain

Crawford and the Republic of Ireland U21's saw their hopes of reaching Euro 2023 ended by Israel in a shoot-out.

SPOT OF BOTHER: Republic of Ireland Under 21 Head Coach Jim Crawford. Pic: ©INPHO/Nick Elliott.

Before the Republic of Ireland senior side’s heartbreak in Prague on Thursday came huge disappointment for the U21s as they were held at home to Moldova.

That hammer blow to their hopes of reaching the 2027 Under-21 European Championship finals was temporarily eased shortly after full time when they learned that Heimir Hallgrímsson’s men were leading 2-0 in the Czech capital.

But hours later a miserable night all round was compounded when Czechia snatched the playoff victory on penalties to end the Boys in Green’s World Cup dream.

That is an experience Jim Crawford’s young Boys in Green are all too familiar with having seen their hopes of reaching Euro 2023 ended by Israel in a shoot-out.

And while Heimir Hallgrímsson’s decision not to practice penalties has been mentioned during the post-mortem, Crawford confirmed that doing-so doesn’t always guarantee success.

“We've done it before, yeah, when you're leading up to a game that could be decided on penalties,” admitted Crawford, speaking in Kazakhstan ahead of Ireland’s U21 crucial clash there on Tuesday.

“I think the whole week building up to the Israel game, we practised penalties every day and try to put them in different sorts of pressurised situations as close as you possibly can, where there were big forfeits, where you try to create an unsettled atmosphere for the penalty kick taker.

“But you know what, we missed all our penalties against Israel (he was later informed that Conor Coventry scored one of their four penalties).

“That was something I'm sure somebody could have brought up saying; ‘jeeze, did they practise penalties? We did!

“After every training session, that’s what we did. That was disappointing. But for me, with that group of players, you've got to learn from that.

“Evan Ferguson missed a penalty and then I think a couple of weeks later for Brighton, he took a penalty and scored. And I'm saying ‘OK, maybe, just maybe, you learned from that experience with the 21s’.

“It was gut wrenching, because we were on the bus coming home and we found out we were 2-0 in the lead.

“And it's really just, sort of, containing that lead up into half-time. Then you can sit down, regroup and what's your second half tactics going to be?

“But when Czechia scored to make it 2-1, you knew this was going to be an open game. And that's what it was and they get their equaliser.

“But I think there were a hell of a lot of positives, that's for sure. A hell of a lot of positives for a lot of players to be able to go again for the next campaign.

“Loads of learning but I think the beauty about it is that more or less that squad, with a few more additions, will learn from the experience.”

Crawford is hoping his current crop of U21s will learn from their disappointing 1-1 draw with Moldova at Tallaght Stadium last time out when they face Kazakhstan on Tuesday afternoon (kick-off 4pm Irish time).

Having made the long trek East, nothing but a win will do against the team sitting bottom of Group D as Ireland look to cut the gap to second-placed Slovakia to five points.

“I'd done it (the journey) a few weeks ago as part of the preparations, and it was a nightmare because every flight that we got was delayed by a few hours,” continued Crawford.

“I was hoping that this wasn't going to happen to this group of players, but in fairness it was clean, everything was on time.

“The challenge was getting used to that five-hour time difference at the time, but we had protocols in place, and the players are up to speed now.

“The pitch is fine. It's actually in better condition than we expected. It's in better condition than Tallaght Stadium. That's not a disrespect to Tallaght Stadium, but the pitch we're on, it's OK. We're ready to go.

“If we win, we close the gap, then September becomes a huge opportunity to get into the playoffs.”