UNDER-19 INTERNATIONAL Republic of Ireland 0 Ukraine 3:IRELAND CRASHED out of the Under-19 European Championship qualification chase yesterday when they succumbed to a second half onslaught by Ukraine in Parchal. Defeat to Portugal in their elite stage opener meant only victory for Paul Doolin's side would suffice to resurrect their hopes of topping the four-nation group and reaching the finals.
An evenly contested first-half saw missed chances for Ireland by Anthony Forde and Seán Murray but it all began to go downhill on 52 minutes when Ukraine produced a counter-attack and Borys Tashchy finished well.
It was 2-0 three minutes later as Vayacheslav Churko punished more slack Irish marking. The rout was completed on 66 minutes when Anton Bratkov tucked away a penalty, an incident from which Samir Carruthers collected his second yellow and was dismissed.
“Ukraine were much better than us in the second half, in all honesty, they could have beaten us by five,” said Doolin. “The game was close in the first half but we then became ragged and I have no complaints.”
Ireland conclude their campaign on Thursday by facing Israel, hammered 7-1 by Portugal yesterday, for the chance to avoid the wooden spoon.
REP OF IRELAND: McDermott (Arsenal); Morrissey (Trieste), Byrne (Rochdale), Williams (Aston Villa), Kavanagh (Fulham); Carruthers (Aston Villa), O'Sullivan (Blackburn Rovers), Sutherland (QPR); Murray (Watford), Lyons (UCD), Forde (Wolves). Subs: Smith (Southend) for Sutherland (57), Byrne (Bohemians) for Murray (70), Hoban (Watford) for Byrne (73)
UKRAINE: Tkachenko; Pysko, Balan, Pryndeta, Bratkov; Polyulyakh, Yakovenko, Kulach, Tashchy, Churko, Trubochkin. Subs: Meskhiia for Tashchy (60), Troyanovskiy for Kulach (70), Yefremov for Churko (72).
Referee: A Jaccottet(Switzerland).
