2023 UEFA Under-21 Championship

Did anyone impress? Dunno. Don?t think anyone played better than you would have expected. Evan Ferguson was pretty good. Coventry was pretty good. Redmond did well considering his debut I guess.

Poor team selection by Crawford. Mistake to go 5-3-2. Midfield lacked penetration. Hodge was fine. Would have been better to have played Smallbone deeper like against Bosnia or whoever it was. Coventry and Smallbone together and Tierney off a striker. Connolly had good moments and I think hit the post twice but his legs look shattered, not sure if he?s unfit or if he?s overworked in Italy but he was getting a toe on balls you?d expect him to reach in his stride.

Lee O?Connor was defensively strong but didn?t offer anything going forward. Wright on the far side offered a bit more going forward but was wasteful.

Mad that it took so long to get Ebosele on the pitch. With 11 v 10, could easily have replaced either a centre back or Lee O?Connor with Ollie O?Neill to add some penetration on the other side was well.

Very disappointing overall. Israel were big and strong but they were very limited and we really struggled to turn our dominance into anything meaningful

Nice summary thanks!

Overall I though it was two fairly well matched sides. For Israel, their keeper and number11 were excellent. First half was even enough but Israel had a good spell leading into taking the lead. Maher will obviously be disappointed with it but he did make a couple of outstanding saves on the counter balance.

I?d agree it was a bit slow at times from Ireland, but that?s been a criticism with this group in most of the games. For two lads making debuts I thought the Joes were both very good. The back three all had good moments. In the middle, Coventry had his standard solid game, Smallbone wasn?t at the level of the previous window, but maybe Israel made stopping him a priority. As mentioned, Hodge is a lovely heads up player and was the one most likely to make things happen.

Wright gets a hard time sometimes but I still like him and understand why he gets picked. He?s get real pace and when it does work for him it causes panic for defending teams, he?s solid enough in his defensive work too. He offer something different to anyone else out there (maybe a bit of the Mageady?s about him in that he?s flaky but will probably still create more than most around him). O?Connor is the one who must be under pressure, hard to say he does anything really poorly but he doesn?t do anything particularly well either. Doesn?t get forward a huge amount and when he does his final ball is not good. He?s just there because of experience at this stage.

Up front, Ferguson reminds me of Coleman when he was under 21. I always got the impression it meant so much to Coleman that he tried way too hard, tensed up and didn?t perform well. I know Ferguson is still extremely young, but he?s looked tense every time he?s played, then his touch lets him down a bit. He improved second half and took the goal very well so maybe now he?ll be able to relax more from the start, his potential is huge. Connolly worked hard, looked by far the most likely to score and was overall pretty decent. It wouldn?t be Connolly if he didn?t frustrate at times and the fact he missed a few chances again won?t have helped his confidence hugely, he desperately needs a few goals for club or country but attitude was good.

Shouldn?t be anything to be feared in the away leg but it?ll be a difficult game. They had some very dangerous attacking player and I think they?ll score again at home, they also had a very good keeper, so difficult to score against. I?d normally be optimistic but I can see Israel winning 2-1 and going through.

wright and o'connor aren't good enough when push comes to shove. think last night showed why o'connor plays where he plays and why celtic didnt fancy him. cant see him ever adding to his senior caps.

O'Connor's under 21 career is fairly incredible looking back on it. Should have been second choice to McNamara in his first campaign and should have been second choice to Ebosele or even Lyons in his second campaign. Instead he's ended up becoming one of our all time highest cap winners at that level. He's fine defensively but offers nothing at all going forward and even his club doesn't play him on the right any more.

I'd say he'll be back in Ireland in a couple of years to be honest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

O'Connor's under 21 career is fairly incredible looking back on it. Should have been second choice to McNamara in his first campaign and should have been second choice to Ebosele or even Lyons in his second campaign. Instead he's ended up becoming one of our all time highest cap winners at that level. He's fine defensively but offers nothing at all going forward and even his club doesn't play him on the right any more.

I'd say he'll be back in Ireland in a couple of years to be honest.

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It was going so well until he made the same mistake many Irish make and signed for Celtic?hopefully other youth players look at him and use him as an example of what a made career decision can lead to (ideally Lawal and Kenny look also and learn to gtfo of Celtic asap.).

if people are quick, they'll see Jonny Evans has aged well

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football

play off will be shown on the big screen in Aviva stadium tonight

Is it just the big screen or will it also be shown on the smaller TV's around the stadium?

two changes - ross tierney in for ferguson, presumably over his fitness concerns. he is on the bench though.

andy lyons in for tyreik wright, i'm guessing as he's more defensively sound.

Team announced

Disappointing on Ferguson being out. I?ve never been that impressed with Tierney, and he has struggled to establish himself at Motherwell. Whats the game plan, Tierney playing off Connolly? Seems like an odd choice by Crawford. Why not just put in Obubeko?

is it a 5-3-2, or 3-5-2?
I guess O'Connor and Lyons will push up to support midfield and drop back into defence as needed

Code:

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O'Connor-Cashin-O'Brien-Redmond-Lyons
      Coventry-Hodge-Smallbone
        Connolly-Tierney

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5-4-1?

Trust Crawford to out defence himself - always incredibly defensive... Basically removed a winger and replaced with a fullback and replaced a striker with an attacking midfield... He's gonna hope to nick a goal on the counter (but he's removed all the pace from the team, except Connolly)

They'll probably win now that I've said that but ultra ultra defensive stuff

Yup more 5-4-1 and hope for a result like Sweden away.

Lucky to be level at HT. Israel are far better than us. Connolly completely isolated up front.

Looking like Crawford showing he is out of his depth again? Poor selection and tactics, let?s hope we get extremely lucky, or he changes tactics in second half

It's penaty shoot-out in Israel.

Ireland did well defensively in 2nd half & in ET to keep the scores level.

Terrible penalties..

awful penos , desperate stuff