Republic of Ireland U-21 Head Coach Jim Crawford has praised his class of 2024 after narrowly missing out on qualification to the 2025 UEFA U-21 European Championships.

A draw in Italy wasn’t enough to claim top spot nor a play-off place, despite finishing with 19 points, the same as Norway, and the highest points total of any side that finished outside the play-off spots in this year's campaign.

Crawford said that despite the disappointment, the future of Irish football remains bright and that he feels the amount of players capped this year, while eligible to play the next campaign, leaves the U-21s in a stronger position going forward in their careers.

On missing out on qualification

“After the game, it was difficult, considering the performance the boys put in and how close we were to automatic qualification. I didn’t find out the Norway-Türkiye result until afterwards, and that was another tough one to take.

“For any team, at any age group, to go to Italy and put in the performance we did, where an Italian team at home is hanging on, with the players they have, players in Serie A and players who’ve played the Premier League, they’re a really quality team and we had them on the back foot. They struggled to deal with us. 

“Only getting the point there isn’t the reason we didn’t qualify, it’s games against Latvia, it’s not holding out against Italy at Turner’s Cross and it’s a decision going against us against Norway where they ultimately score – they’re tough to take. Looking back at those games, would you change anything? No. We had over 30 chances against Latvia, we were the better team against Norway and again, last night against Italy. People will see this as a set-back, but with all forms of adversity, there are learnings.”

Players eligible to play in the next campaign

“We're a lot better set than at this point in the last campaign with regards to players for the next qualifiers. We brought in 15 players, since our first game together against Iceland, who can play in the next campaign and of those, nine have already been capped, which is remarkable. The likes of James Abankwah, Sam Curtis, Rocco Vata and Mark O’Mahony have got a lot of competitive minutes already, before we go into the next campaign. But, it’s not just about getting a cap, it’s learning from the likes of Bosun Lawal, Sinclair Armstrong, Andrew Moran and Joe Hodge who were all on the fringes of the senior team during this campaign and looking at how they act in training and around the team hotel because they’re fantastic professionals.

“A high bar has been set by this group in terms of professionalism and that’s the standard we expect at this level. It’s for the those players in the next group to understand that playing international Under-21s football is a difficult level and it’s a level up from development football because you are coming up against players from the likes of Premier League, Serie A, and other top leagues in the Europe."

Message to the players leaving the Under-21s

“There’s a lot of players who didn’t make this squad, and had a lot of difficult decisions to make, but that’s not to say that they weren’t a part of it. You look at Ollie O’Neill who played a big part in getting us to where we are, and the likes of Joe Hodge – our captain- and many others.

“They’re superb professionals and what I would say to them, try and get as much first-team football as you can to reach your ceiling. It goes to training right, eating right, listening to coaches, and luck too, and if all that falls into place you have a great chance going forward.”

Andrew Moran and Sinclair Armstrong as inspiration

“If you look at Andrew Moran, he came in at the start of the last campaign, he played a few games then didn’t feature until he played against Iceland and had a massively influential role this campaign.

“He’s an amazing example for younger players who have had to wait their chance and who can have a greater influence with us in the future. He’s our vice-captain and every time he’s been asked to lead, he’s been a fantastic example. He’s earned a senior cap and I back to him go and earn even more. Sinclair is another for the players to aspire to too. He’s earned his senior cap, he’s playing regularly in the Championship. Sinclair was brought into the Under-21s for a camp in the last campaign too and didn’t feature, yet you’ve only to see the impact he’s made for us this year.”

Looking forward

“I’ll always be excited working with Irish talent. We do have to put this campaign in perspective that Norway, Italy and Türkiye are all very good teams and when the draw was made we knew it was a stern challenge. I was delighted with the challenge, I want our group of players to be tested and I thought they were outstanding throughout the campaign.

“If you were to ask me what type of draw I’d like, I’d be happy with a challenging draw because I believe that will bring out the best in our players. I’m really pleased we got a lot of players in this year who can go again next year because that puts us in a much stronger place than this time two years ago.”

Ireland Under-21s Players / Appearances / Goals

James Abankwah */ 8 appearances

Tayo Adaramola / 5 appearances

Baba Adeeko / 9 appearances

Emmanuel Adegboyega / 2 appearances

Sinclair Armstrong /10 appearances / 6 goals

Tiernan Brooks / 5 appearances

Darragh Burns / 2 appearances

Killian Cahill / 2 appearances

Tom Cannon / 1 appearance / 1 goal

Conor Carty / 4 appearances / 1 goal

Dara Costelloe / 1 appearance

Sam Curtis* / 14 appearances / 1 goal

Dylan Duffy / 1 appearance

Festy Ebosele / 1 appearance

Aidomo Emakhu / 12 appearances / 4 goals

James Furlong / 5 appearances

Anselmo Garcia MacNulty / 12 appearances

Zak Gilsenan / 4 appearances / 1 goal

Sean Grehan* / 4 appearances

Matt Healy / 11 appearances

Jack Henry-Francis / 1 appearance

Joe Hodge / 7 appearances / 1 goal

Josh Keeley / 10 appearances / 3 cleansheets

Johnny Kenny / 8 appearances / 1 goal

Bosun Lawal / 11 appearances / 1 goal

Kian Leavy / 2 appearances

Ed McJannet*/ 3 appearances

Andrew Moran / 11 appearances / 5 goals

Adam Murphy* / 2 appearances

Alex Murphy* / 2 appearances

Conan Noonan / 1 appearance

Conor O’Brien* / 1 appearance

Mark O’Mahony* / 5 appearances

Ollie O’Neill / 7 appearances

Connor O’Riordan / 6 appearances

Armstrong Oko-Flex / 6 appearances / 4 goals

Killian Phillips / 7 appearances / 1 goal

Sean Roughan / 5 appearances / 2 goals

Tony Springett / 5 appearances

Rocco Vata */ 5 appearances / 5 goals

*eligible for U-21s football next campaign

Ireland Under-21 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifying Results

09.09.2023 | Ireland 3-2 Türkiye
14.09.2023 | Ireland 3-0 San Marino
14.10.2023 | Latvia 1-2 Ireland
17.11.2023 | Norway 3-2 Ireland
21.11.2023 | Ireland 2-2 Italy
22.03.2024 | San Marino 0-7 Ireland
06.09.2024 | Türkiye 0-1 Ireland
10.09. 2024 | Ireland 2-2 Latvia
11.10.2024 | Ireland 1-1 Norway
15.10.2024 | Italy 1-1 Ireland