General
- Friday May 12th, 2017 @ 16:17
Ireland U17s Ready For Euro 2017 Quarter-Final Clash With England
Saints Brian Maher, Luke Nolan and Richie O'Farrell (above) are ready for more Euro 2017 action on Saturday.
Colin O'Brien's boys in green face the old enemy England in the UEFA European Under 17 Championship Quarter Final in Zagreb, Croatia.
Kick-off is 11am Irish Time.
Ireland finished second in their group but were hammered 7-0 by Germany in their final group game on Wednesday.
Brian, Luke and Richie have played every minute of Ireland's games so far.
Saturday's game not only is for a semi-final berth, where Turkey await the winners, but a place in October's FIFA Under 17 World Cup in India is also secured for the team that advances.
Ireland's campaign began back in October, with the squad so far winning seven out of nine matches to advance further than any other Irish team has since the turn of the century.
Gaffer
Head Coach Colin O'Brien has been speaking to FAI.IE
"We have a process with the players whether we win, draw or lose matches. We'll always look back to look forward. Our message to the players has been the group stages was about three games. We performed very well in two games and we weren't at our standards for the third game."
"The players have had the opportunity to look back at certain stages of that game, speak about it and then we got out on the pitch this morning and had a very good session. Everyone realises now we are in a different competition, it's knockout now and it's a derby game for us."
Standing in Ireland's way on Saturday will be Steve Cooper's England side who topped Group D with a 100% record following wins over Netherlands, Norway and Ukraine.
"England are a very high quality team. The majority of their players are playing category one football in England. They are very strong at the back, have very good ball playing midfielders and their big players are their forwards where they have a lot of creativity, pace and power."
"We will have learned a lot from the last game, what we need to do better, and if the players do that earlier tomorrow we'll be fine."
"The main thing is that our players learn. This is about their future. They are in a quarter final of a European Championships, it's the furthest we've come in 20 years and they are getting loads of experience from it. That can only be good for our players going forward up to 18s, 19s, and Under 21s."
Fixtures/Results
Group Stage
Thursday, 4 May: Republic of Ireland 0-1 Serbia, Stadium Kostrena, Kostrena
Sunday 7 May: Republic of Ireland 2-1 Bosnia & Herzegovina, Stadium Kostrena, Kostrena
Wednesday, 10 May: Republic of Ireland 0-7 Germany, Stadium Rujevica, Rijeka
UEFA European Under 17 Championship Quarter Final
England v Republic of Ireland, SRC Velika Gorika, Velika Gorica. Kick-Off 11am Irish time
