Macedonia 1 Rep of Ireland 4THE REPUBLIC of Ireland have to avoid defeat against Romania in tomorrow's concluding Uefa under-17 first-phase qualifier to advance to the elite stage of the tournament.
Tom Mohan’s side head into the contest on four points from their opening two games after Jack Byrne’s hat-trick (two penalties) and a Daniel Cleary header inspired them to a comfortable win against mini-group hosts Macedonia in Skopje yesterday.
Byrne, on the books Manchester City,scored in the 22nd minute after Eoghan Stokes was fouled in the box and he doubled the lead five minutes before the interval from the spot when Lazar Stojkovski handled inside the area.
Though Tauljant Sulejmanov halved the arrears with a penalty five minutes into the second half, Cleary scored with a 63rd-minute header and Byrne’s hat-trick strike made it 4-1 on full-time.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Burke (Sunderland); Dempsey (Aston Villa), Baba (Castlebar Celtic), Cleary (Liverpool), Moseley (Birmingham City); Donnellan (College Corinthians), Byrne (Manchester City), Mulhall (Stella Maris); O’Halloran (Fulham), Stokes (Leeds United), Mulraney (Nottingham Forest). Subs: Galvin (Ipswich Town) for Stokes (61 mins), Confrey (St Kevin’s Boys) for Mulraney (73 mins).
