IRELAND U21S HAVE been beaten 1-0 away to Iceland in their European Championship qualifier today.
It is the first time they have lost in the campaign, having previously secured three wins and one draw.
Sveinn Aron Gudjohnsen — son of former Chelsea player Eidur — scored the winning goal from the penalty spot just before the half-hour mark, after Lee O’Connor was penalised for a handball
Ireland could not make the most of their second-half chances, while their misery was compounded late on, as O’Connor was sent off after picking up a second booking.
Michael Obafemi had been handed a first start at U21 level, with Aaron Connolly, Troy Parrott and Jonathan Afolabi all unavailable in attack.
There were two other changes from last week’s 0-0 draw against the group top seeds Italy — Kameron Ledwidge replaced Liam Scales and Connor Ronan made way for Danny Mandroiu.
The Boys in Green will have been disappointed to go in one-down at the break. Michael Obafemi saw a shot saved by Patrik Sigurdur Gunnarsson, while Adam Idah could not find the target with a header.
Dara O’Shea went close in the second half from Jayson Molumby’s free kick, but the defender’s close-range attempt could only find the side-netting.
Idah also could have equalised after a threatening run, but his attempt went wide.
Aaron Drinan and Gavin Kilkenny were both introduced in the dying minutes, but could not rescue a point, as Ireland suffered just their third defeat under Kenny, having previously been beaten by Brazil and Mexico (on penalties) during the Toulon Tournament in the summer.
Ireland remain top of Group 1 following today’s game on 10 points, though Iceland now trail them by just a point and have a game in hand. Italy sit third on seven points, though they have two matches in hand, while Sweden will move onto six points with two games in hand if they beat Luxembourg later today.
Ireland team: Caoimhin Kelleher; Lee O’Connor, Kameron Ledwidge, Conor Masterson, Dara O’Shea; Conor Coventry, Jayson Molumby; Danny Mandroiu (Drinan 86), Michael Obafemi (Kilkenny 75), Adam Idah.
Subs: Gavin Bazunu, Connor Ronan, Jason Knight, Nathan Collins, Jack Taylor, Gavin Kilkenny, Simon Power, Aaron Drinan, Liam Scales.
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Who backs Delaney tho’ ? For such a small & beautiful country we accept a very low standard & we pay the wrong people way too much.
Delaney is a gormless plank,put into the FAI by his ticket tout father
Far from gormless.
Figure out how he can be removed from office, who has to agree to it and who pays their wages.
Nothing gormless about that.
Ah who cares, Trap is still manager. Just have to get used to it till he’s gone. COYBIG !!
Too little too late, both Delaney and Trapp are stuck in a greed warp, unconscionably high salaries and selling Irish soccer short. Under their stewardship, a cancer is taking hold of Irish football that is going to end up setting us back decades.
To appease fans, the big news is that Trapp is attending a match in England today – says it all that this is news. Delaney should go for giving this has been a new long term unaffordable contract before the Euros and Trapp should have been fired. Upcoming friendlys should be boycotted. €150,000 pa is more than enough to pay the FAI head.
Thats even too much for Delaney to be honest,he shouldn’t be there,look at the state if the irish league!!
Sick of the same news recycled by the press everyday about Trap , he’s the manager so let’s move on and back him up during the qualifiers because if we don’t do that we’ve no chance of getting to the world cup.
Trap and Delaney are symbolic of FG and Labour. Only concerned about bondholder payments to themselves.
What?
We hava gooda mentality and a gooda team.
If only.
That Delaney fella is some ass clown, he should have stepped down after the 33rd country comment after the French match, 450k a year for making comments like that. But sure why step down if your signing your own checks. His stupid head suits Irish soccer in fairness, annoying!!
Wolfgang do u read your comments before you post them??
No, why do u?
Sports administration at the highest level in any sport is all political and John Delaney is the consumate politician. No matter how you do the sums we cannot afford for Trap to go with bankrupting the FAI finanacially, so you might as well get used to having Trap until the end of the road for us at WC 2014 however soon it comes to an end for us.
look at the head of tardelli looks like he is hiding something from trap..I smell a rat!
Lol looks like he’s just farted and Trap’s just got wind of it!
LOL. Spot on Mac.
How much do the Irish government contribute toward the FAI either in direct subsidies or in tax breaks, allowances, advertising on pitches, employment grants, ticket purchases, the list goes on. Transparency please as their are people hungry in Ireland while Delaney is bleeding the system for pension and expenses plus his salary. How much will his pension cost as I think he will live to be 100 in spite of us all.
Trap should join Fianna Fail
So John delay gets paid 360000 a year , amount cut in fai grant aid to local clubs last year 370k , how are we still paying so much for such bad leadership and organisation?? A symbol of everything that’s wrong with country at the moment..