Ireland Men’s Under 18’s fought back from 1-0 down to earn a well deserved draw against hosts Croatia.

Colin O’Brien’s men returned to the Sports Centre Zelena Laguna, Poreč hoping to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat to Japan three days ago and showed tremendous quality and determination against another top quality opposition, to equalise late on thanks to a stunning Keilan Quinn finish.

In the second of three preparation games ahead of next Autumn’s 2025/26 UEFA Under-19 Qualifiers, O’Brien rang changes in a bid to get a good look at the squad at his disposal. But despite the change of personnel, Ireland carried over the momentum from their strong finish against Japan into this encounter and dominated from the off.

The hosts keeper, Maroje Kostopec, was definitely the busier of the two denying Cork City’s Matthew Murray who looked razor sharp up front for the young Boys in Green.

But having weathered the Irish storm Sergej Milivojevic’s men, who overcame Portugal 2-1, in their opening game, began to wrestle the momentum in their favour, showing their class  but Ireland worked tirelessly to ensure the Shamrock Rovers stopper, Alex Noonan, remained relatively untested.

Having finished the half the stronger, Ireland went close to opening the scoring just after the restart. Having won the ball back up high, that man again Murray turned swiftly but dragged his left footed strike just wide of the far post.

The game became more stretched as the half wore on with both Murray and Antonio Janjic exchanging half chances as both teams sensed a winner was on offer.

Disaster struck when Shelbourne starlet Luca Cailloce was harshly adjudged to have brought down the aforementioned Janjic inside the area, as the wideman skipped inside.

Croatia skipper Ivan Baric smashed home the resulting penalty, despite Noonan’s best efforts, who did brilliantly to get a hand on the spot-kick but the power on the strike ultimately proved just too much.

Ireland threw bodies forward in the desperate hope of finding their deserved equaliser and, with time running out, Kaylem Harnett  cut the ball back to Aston Villa midfielder Quinn, who curled a top class left footed effort across goal and into the far top corner to level.

The future stars of Irish football must recover well as they round off the busy week against Portugal on Tuesday morning (11.00 Irish time)

Croatia: Maroje Kostopec, Zvonimir Hrastovic (Noa Godec, 65'), Fran Pecek (Dino Godec, 65'), Marko Ascic (Karlo Mijo Simic, 65'), Duke Milisic, Ante Bilobrk, Ivan Knezevic, Andelo Sutalo (Tomas Bakovic, 46'), Ivan Baric (Dukan Ahmeti, 46'), Antonio Janjic, Andrija Pesa (Luka Vrzic, 46')

Ireland: Alex Noonan, Daniel Mare, James Roche, Luke O’Donnell (Dan Ring, 65'), Matthew Murray (Keilan Quinn, 73'), Zak O’Sullivan (Kaylem Harnett, 65'), Taylor McCarthy, Joe Sheridan (Ajibola Oluwabiyi, 73'), Raymond Offor, Luca Cailloce (Kyle Fitzgerald, 76'), Fiachra CoffeyIreland: Alex Noonan, Daniel Mare, James Roche, Luke O’Donnell (Dan Ring, 65'), Matthew Murray (Keilan Quinn, 73'), Zak O’Sullivan (Kaylem Harnett, 65'), Taylor McCarthy, Joe Sheridan (Ajibola Oluwabiyi, 73'), Raymond Offor, Luca Cailloce (Kyle Fitzgerald, 76'), Fiachra Coffey

Referee: Patrick Klobucar (Croatia)

By Darryl Geraghty