UEFA Under-21 Qualifying - Estonia v Rep of Ireland:THE REPUBLIC of Ireland have the double incentive of trying to kick-start their qualifying campaign and knock the joint-leaders off their perch in the process this afternoon.
Don Givens’ under-21 side would not have expected to be meeting a side sitting level with Turkey on six points at the top of Group Two when they travelled to Estonia. But that is the case as the Baltic side come into the fixture at Rakvare with two wins from their opening games.
“Estonia have won their last two games. I saw them beat Switzerland and my assistant Joe Boyle watched their win over Georgia,” said Givens. “They’re not brilliant, but they’re hard-working, they defend well and break and have decent attackers.
“We’ll have to be about them. I feel we can dominate the game, but we’ve got to be careful and hopefully convert the chances we didn’t take against Turkey.”
That fixture was a real blow to the Irish after they had produced memorable displays in their previous friendly encounters.
Wigan midfielder James McCarthy insists the Irish were unlucky against the Turks in Turner’s Cross in their first tie in this competition back in March.
“It’s a big game for us, especially after the opening round 3-0 defeat by Turkey, which I didn’t think was a fair reflection of how we played on the night,” said McCarthy.
“It was a blow because we’d played very well in friendlies against Spain and Germany, then when the qualifier came around against Turkey it didn’t work out for us. We’d created enough to win it.”
Givens believes McCarthy has avoided a similar fate to Liam Miller – who has struggled to progress since joining Manchester United from Celtic in 2004 – by signing for the Latics.
“I think it’s not a bad move for James. If he’d gone to a Liverpool or Chelsea he may have disappeared. It could have been a Liam Miller move – he hit the wall. That was a bad move.”
REP OF IRELAND:Redmond (Burton Alb); Davies (Reading), Moloney (Notts County), Spillane (Norwich), Bermingham (Shamrock Rrs), Gleeson (MK Dons), McCarthy (Wigan), Garvan (Ipswich), Judge (Plymouth), Sheridan (Plymouth), O'Shea (Birmingham).
