Republic of Ireland 3 England 2Ireland ran the full gamut of footballing emotion as they came from a position of finishing with nothing to winning a double prize in Honefoss last night.
The achievement of making the FIFA World Youth Cup finals has the added gloss of a shot at third place at these championships - remarkably, the fourth time in six seasons that Brian Kerr has led this age group to the last four.
Two-nil down at half-time, and with Belgium having taken a shock lead against Germany in Lillestrom, Ireland were at that stage bottom of the group and going home with nothing. Before, that is, they staged the most dramatic comeback in Kerr's six-and-a-half year reign as underage manager.
Ireland now play a skilful Slovakian team at the Ullevaal Stadium in Olso at noon tomorrow for the bronze medals.
The revival gathered momentum on 54 minutes from the second dubious penalty of the game. Arsenal's Ryan Garry pushed Jonathan Daly over as they rose to meet Stephen Capper's diagonal ball, and fussy Portuguese referee Paulo Costa pointed to the spot. Daly held his nerve to beat Lee Grant from 12 yards and score his third goal of the finals.
The equaliser arrived in the 72nd minute when Stephen Paisley powerfully headed home Liam Kearney's free kick.
Another header two minutes later from right-back Stephen Kelly, this time from a Kearney corner, completed this dramatic comeback.
England were greatly flattered by their 2-0 interval lead. Darren Carter, suspiciously offside, ran on to Michael Chopra's ball to stretch and shoot past Brian Murphy in the 11th minute.
And Ireland looked to have a mountain to climb when Dean Ashton added the second goal in first-half stoppage time. Murphy was harshly adjudged to have bundled over John Welsh as he came to claim the ball. Ashton scored from the spot.
"We may have been 2-0 down at half-time but I felt we were well in the game," said an emotional Kerr. "We created four chances before they scored.
"It was very disappointing to be behind at all, and then to lose the second goal to a penalty was a sickener. But I told the players if they could win the second half we would have a chance.
"The players were magnificent. I never doubted the spirit of these guys, but I didn't think they had that much spirit. It was amazing stuff and I think we fully deserved it. We were the better team. We threatened more from set-pieces, we worked hard and we passed the ball better.
"First priority was to qualify for the World Cup. To be now in the medals is great. We could do no more than win our game," added Kerr.
Germany beat Belgium 2-1 to win the group and go through to the final with Spain.
Belgium losing gives England the consolation of at least making the finals of the World Cup.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Murphy (Manchester City); Kelly (Tottenham Hotspur), McCarthy (Manchester City), Paisley (Manchester City), Capper (Sunderland); Thornton (Sunderland), Ward (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Foley (Liverpool), Kearney (Nottingham Forest), Daly (Stockport County), Deane (Charlton Athletic). Subs: Henderson (Aston Villa) for Murphy (half-time), Elliott (Manchester City) for Deane (62 mins).
ENGLAND: Grant (Derby County); Walsh (Liverpool), Johnson (West Ham United), Clark (Sunderland), Garry (Arsenal); Jenas (Newcastle United), Carter (Birmingham City), Cooke (Aston Villa); Thomas (Arsenal), Ashton (Crew Alexandra), Chopra (Newcastle United). Subs: Otsemobor (Liverpool ) for Clark (74 mins), Cole (Chelsea) for Chopra (74 mins), Pennant (Arsenal) for Thomas (77 mins.).
Referee: P Costa (Portugal).
