Ireland U21s lose narrowly in the snow in Finland to set up crucial return leg in Cork
SNOW JOKE: Ireland's Rory Finneran in action against Finland's Onni Helén. Pic: Gerry Scully/Sportsfile
Cork has become accustomed to hosting big nights for Irish football in recent times and it is going to have to produce yet another if the Republic of Ireland are to reach their first ever U21 European Championship following a 1-0 loss in Finland on Friday night.
The Ireland Women’s National Team have won all four of their matches at Páirc Uí Chaoimh while Jim Crawford’s U21s defeated back-to-back European champions England at Turner’s Cross to reach these playoffs.
But on Tuesday night, Ireland will need to produce arguably their biggest result in the Rebel County yet as substitute Onni Helén’s decisive finish with the last touch of the first half ensured the young Boys in Green have a deficit to overturn.
Finland started brightly and it took an excellent clearance from Alex Murphy to prevent Liam Moller’s dangerous delivery across the face of goal from finding Jimi Tauriainen for a tap in inside three minutes.
After Ireland weathered the early storm from their opponents, they also had to deal with a substantial snowfall on the artificial surface at the Tammelan Stadion in Tampere.
The visitors gained a foothold in the contest and began to keep possession much better as the half progressed, which even continued when the referee was forced to swap the white football for a yellow one.
The hosts were dealt a blow midway through the first period when the lively Tauriainen was forced to withdraw with a hamstring injury, although Ireland never came close to threatening the Finnish goal.
The match was temporarily halted on the half an hour mark to allow the ground staff to clear the heavy snow off the lines of play and shortly after play resumed, Finland almost snatched the opening goal but goalkeeper Noah Jauny gathered Pyry Mentu’s in-swinging free kick at the second attempt.
Finland were inches away from breaking the deadlock before the break but Matias Siltanen’s curler from the edge of the penalty area drifted just past the top right corner.
The Boys in Green thought they had taken the lead in the fourth of seven minutes added on minutes but in-form Hibs striker Owen Elding, who has already represented Ireland at senior level, saw his header ruled out for offside.
Then in the eighth of seven minutes added on, Finland took the lead when Helén sent his looping header from Moller’s cross into the far bottom left corner of the net.
It wasn’t until almost an hour later that the second half resumed as officials again worked to clear the pitch and Ireland were soon wishing for the snow to return.
The Finns looked to finish the job and Jauny needed to be alert to deny Helén’s powerful strike and a close-range header from Samuli Miettinen before the goalscorer almost added a second but his clever side-footed strike crashed against the near post.
Crawford introduced Matteo Egan for his debut along with Trent Kone-Doherty on the hour mark and the changes almost reaped immediate dividends.
Kone-Doherty caused numerous problems with his pace and in the 67th minute his precise cross was headed onto the bar by Jamie Mullins before Elding saw his rebound scrambled off the line.
Egan – the 18-year-old wing back from Empoli – had Ireland’s best chance to snatch an equaliser late on but he couldn’t hit the target when found in space inside the box as all eyes now turn to a big night in Cork on Tuesday.
Jantunen; Ylitolva, Kangasniemi, Miettinen, Galvez; Mentu, Siltanen, Soderback (Europaeus 86), Tauriainen (Helén 21), Ruoppi; Moller (Mero 86).
Jauny; Gallagher (Egan 61), Grehan, Murphy; McCarthy, Finneran, Devaney (Walsh 85), McManus; Elding, Mullins; Lonergan (Kone Doherty 61).
Cristian-Petru Ciochirca (Austria).
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