IRELAND'S JOE HODGE believes reaching a first U21 tournament with Ireland would be 'brilliant'.
Jim Crawford's side head to Tel Aviv tomorrow night for the second leg of their play-off after drawing 1-1 last Friday.
Evan Ferguson scored a late header to give the young Irish side a great chance of making it to Romania and Georgia in 2023.
Hodge, who has played for the Ireland in European Championships at Under-17 and Under-19 level can now do the same with victory against Israel tomorrow.
Ireland have never played in the European Championships at this level. Hodge (20) wants to change that.
“It’s always nice getting in the game and putting in a tackle in, getting on the ball, whatever it is that builds your confidence,” he said of his rip-roaring start.
“We are one game away from it now, so hopefully we can get there.
FT: Ireland U21s 1-1 Israel U21s
Ireland much better in the second half in a game they maybe should have won. Evan Ferguson found the equaliser but the likes of Aaron Connolly, Joe Hodge and Eiran Cashin also impressed.
What were your thoughts on the game?#COYBIG pic.twitter.com/3x6czNCGZb— Kenny's Kids (@KennysKids) September 23, 2022
“It’s been a long campaign. I’ve not been involved in all of it, so the other lads would know better than me how hard it’s been to get to this point.
“I can see what it means to them, how hard they have worked to get here.
“It means everything to me, it’s a huge opportunity. We have never qualified before so to qualify would be brilliant.”
Hodge also knows that the second leg will be a tough test for Ireland but knows that that full focus will be on getting a result tomorrow.
“We know there's another game on Tuesday. We're not getting ahead of ourselves.
“It's only half the job done and we're not ahead, so we have to go there and put another good performance in, so I'm ready for that, focused on it.”
Ireland's game starts at 18.15 tomorrow.
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