Republic of Ireland Under-21s will play their first friendly of the June international window against Ukraine in Bad Waltersdorf, Austria on Friday.
The Young Boys in Green saw a friendly scheduled for earlier in the week against Gabon cancelled after the African side failed to travel to Austria. But Head Coach Jim Crawford used the additional time to prepare for Ukraine who are about to play in the U21 European Championships in Romania/Georgia. Like Ireland, Ukraine reached the play-offs, but navigated their way to the finals with a 5-3 aggregate win over against Slovakia The young Irish side are preparing for the start of their qualification campaign in September and have five players in their squad who competed in the U19 EURO qualifiers earlier this season.
Ireland Under-21s midfielder Killian Phillips said: “We’re looking forward to the game. It’s probably made us a bit hungrier to play because we didn’t get to play Gabon. The group is really together, this is only our second camp together but we’re all looking for it, we’re all buzzing and we’re all getting along and all heads are switched on for the game on Friday.
“Ukraine are a very good team and that’s the standard we should be looking to compete with. It will be a tough game, we’ve a couple of 17 and 18 year olds in the squad and Ukraine will be older but if you look at the character we showed in the Iceland game we’ll all stick together and it will be a good test for us.” Ireland Under-21s SquadGoalkeepers: Tiernan Brooks (Notts County), Killian Cahill (Brighton & Hove Albion), Josh Keeley (Tottenham Hotspur)Defenders: James Abankwah (Udinese), Tayo Adaramola (Crystal Palace), Sam Curtis (St. Patrick’s Athletic) James Furlong (Brighton & Hove Albion), Anselmo Garcia MacNulty (Wolfsburg), Sean Grehan (Crystal Palace), Connor O’Riordan (Crewe Alexandra), Sean Roughan (Lincoln City)Midfielders: Darragh Burns (MK Dons), Dara Costelloe (Burnley), Jack Henry-Francis (Arsenal), Joe Hodge (Wolves), Bosun Lawal (Celtic), Ed McJannet (Lecce), Killian Phillips (Crystal Palace), Harry Vaughan (Hull City)Forwards: Sinclair Armstrong (QPR), Conor Carty (St. Patrick’s Athletic, on loan from Bolton Wanderers), Dylan Duffy (Lincoln City), Aidomo Emakhu (Millwall), Andrew Moran (Brighton & Hove Albion), Armstrong Oko-Flex (West Ham United), Ollie O’Neill (Derry City, on loan from Fulham)
Match Details Fixture: Ireland U21 v Ukraine U21Date: Friday, June 16KO time: 5pm (Irish time)Stadium: Thermenstadion, Bad Waltersdorf, AustriaMatch coverage: Follow match updates on Twitter via @IrelandFootballMatch stat: This will be the first ever meeting between Ireland and Ukraine at Under-21 level
Ireland Under-21s international friendly fixtures (All times are Irish Standard Time)Friday, June 16 | Ukraine U21 v Ireland U21, KO 5pm, Thermenstadion, Bad Waltersdorf, AustriaMonday, June 19 | Ireland U21 v Kuwait U22, KO 4pm, Parktherme Arena, Bad Radkersburg, Austria
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