Ireland U21 looks to get the European Championship qualifier campaign back on track in Sweden
Jim Crawford has urged his Irish U21s to wait with Sweden’s revenge mission for the loss in Tallaght in November last year and take control of their own destiny when chasing a historic berth at the European Championships 2023.
The Republic of Ireland has never qualified a men’s team for a major tournament at this level but Group F has proved to be an unpredictable and rocky road for all challengers with Italy, Sweden and Boys in Green all losing unexpected points so far.
Sweden is at the top with 14 points in seven matches but Italy is only on goal difference after playing a minor. Bosnia and Herzegovina is third with 11 out of eight and Ireland is fourth with 10 after six matches.
Win today in Borås (17.00, live on RTÉ2), a city 40 minutes east of Gothenburg, and Ireland would probably skip third-placed Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is in action today against Italy in Trieste, and move to just one point behind the Swedes with a less played game.
The group winner, who is probably still the Azzurri, automatically qualifies when the runner-up enters a play-off and Crawford’s team will look at the campaign with home matches against the Bosnians and Montenegro before a June date in Italy.
Ireland have defeated Sweden three times in a row at this level, twice under Stephen Kenny in the last campaign and since that 1-0 victory at home last year with the permission of Ollie O’Neill, and Crawford knows exactly what their hosts will be think about today. .
“Certain revenge. They are a pot two-team, seeded second in the group. I’m sure they probably felt tough in Tallaght, but I can imagine there will be a lot of pressure from them. They will be aggressive , they will like themselves, and it will be a different type of Swedish team.
“They will make changes, with (Anthony) Elanga with the senior team, but it will be a different attitude to the one we got in Tallaght. They have a new manager and I’m sure he will look at how we play, identify weaknesses that he can exploit. It will be an exciting game, that’s for sure. ”
To that intrigue is the presence of the Swedish U21 leaders for the first time of the nation’s next big thing, Roony Bardghji, who has already played seven times and scored two goals for FC Copenhagen in the Danish league after turning 16 in November.
The midfielder has already earned a number of long tribute videos on YouTube and is 13 months younger than Ireland’s own undercover agent, Brighton forward Evan Ferguson, who is one of a handful of key players missing today for a mix of reasons.
Also absent are Festy Ebosele, who is leaving Derby County for Udinese this summer, and Southampton midfielder Will Smallbone. All are significant losses no matter how much Crawford urges others to make the most of the opportunity.
“Players have to deal with this type of environment to continue and impress the senior team,” he said. “Players know the importance of that. It will be a great learning environment for them, to play in games of this size.”
Jens Gustafsson is the new Swedish manager. He took over in November last year from Poya Asbaghi, who accepted the top job at Barnsley in the English championship, and Bardghji is just one of seven new faces from the squad that was in Dublin.
This is the first competitive match either side has played since then and the feeling of the unknown when it comes to the hosts’ staff and approach will extend to the artificial playing surface even if the guests have trained similarly in the last week.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this. Crawford himself described it as the biggest game in the group for Ireland. It’s, in fact, a sliding door moment: winning and the final is a real opportunity, slipping up again and it’s all over.
A draw and the best case scenario may be that they would have to win in Italy.
They have missed penalties away against both Luxembourg and Montenegro and conceded a late equalizer to the former and two within the first 10 minutes when they lost to the latter. This is a day when everything has to come together during the 90 minutes.