Ireland U19s begin UEFA qualifying campaign in Albania

THE Republic of Ireland U19 side commences their UEFA U19 Championships qualifying campaign tomorrow morning when they meet mini-tournament hosts Albania in Tirana (11.00am Irish).

Ireland have been drawn in Qualifying Group 4 with the Albanians, Gibraltar and Germany. The top two from each group progresses to the Elite Phase alongside the third-placed team with the best record against the top pair in their group.

Only the seven Elite Phase group winners will progress from there to Georgia, which will host the final tournament from 2 to 15 July 2017.

Ireland U19 Head Coach Tom Mohan knows that the road ahead is potentially a long one for his side and that they've been given a tough start.

"Albania will be very tough opponents, particularly considering they're the  home side. It's very warm here and the temperatures are in the mid-20s so it's hot conditions for our boys and we'll have to manage that," said Mohan.

"Overall our guys are upbeat about the challenge ahead and we'll be going into the game looking to win it.

"We flew into Tirana last night, got to our base, settled in quickly and have trained well so we're pleased with how things have gone. We had ten players playing club games at the weekend but they all came through ok. The only concern is Declan Rice through illness but we hope that will clear up later in the week.

"Albania have a number of players who beat Wales in the qualifiers last year. They haven't played a lot of friendly matches recently but we've done as much homework as we can and we're ready for it."

After producing two wins over Austria in friendly match last month, the Irish go into the tournament in confident mood and Mohan wants them to become ruthless in front of goal this week.

"We've got good attacking players in this group and they've scored goals so we'll look to everybody to contribute and take our chances when they come," he added. 

"We've occasionally rued not putting those chances away so will look to be clinical if we can this week."

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND U19 SQUAD:

Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool)

Mark Travers (Bournemouth)

Corey O’Keeffe (Birmingham City)

Darragh Leahy (Coventry City)

Conor Masterson (Liverpool)

Canice Carroll (Oxford Utd)

Dara O’Shea (West Bromwich Albion)

Declan Rice (West Ham)

Jake Doyle Hayes (Aston Villa)

Trevor Clarke (Shamrock Rovers)

Zachary Elbouzedi (West Bromwich Albion)

Conor Levingston (Wolves)

Connor Ronan (Wolves)

Steven Kinsella (Everton - on-loan at St Patrick’s Athletic)

Jayson Molumby (Brighton)

Ronan Hale (Birmingham City)

Michael O'Connor (Dundalk FC)

Josh Barrett (Reading)

FIXTURES

UEFA U19 Championships Qualifying Round Group Four

Thursday, October 6

Albania v Republic of Ireland, Selman Stermazi, Tirana (ALB) (11.00am Irish)

Saturday, October 8

Republic of Ireland v Gibraltar, Niko Dovana, Durres (ALB) (11.00am Irish)

Tuesday, October 11

Republic of Ireland v Germany, Niko Dovana, Durres (ALB) (1.00pm Irish)