JIM CRAWFORD SAYS he “certainly” still believes his Ireland U21 team can win their Euro 2025 qualification group despite letting slip two points at home to Latvia this evening.
A dominant Ireland made a dream start, getting in front through Sinclair Armstrong’s sixth Irish U21 goal and creating chance after chance thereafter, but they lacked a ruthless streak that would have had them out of sight.
This, coupled with two cheap concessions on either side of half-time, left them somehow trailing until Sean Roughan’s equaliser.
And speaking after a disappointing result for his side, Crawford said: “That is international football.
We said to the players that Latvia where no mugs. They drew with Italy. They beat Turkey. And they came here and you could say they did a job on us in terms of how they slowed the game down and got bodies behind the ball.
“We still created chances but we had to be more clinical, particularly when we were 1-0 up. It is about having a ruthless streak in those moments. We didn’t have that.
“And then just before half-time, we didn’t defend the right-hand side of the pitch very well; we didn’t track runners into the box and we paid the price.
“That goal made it 1-1. We thought it was a wake-up call and then we gifted them another goal. That was disappointing.
“You probably heard Latvia in the dressing room, singing and laughing. It is a massive result for them and it is something we have got to learn pretty quick that when you are on top of the game, you have to be ruthless when you create chances. But not just that; you have to be switched on for their counter-attacks. We have to perform our roles and responsibilities.”
Ireland were unable to put even more daylight between themselves and Norway in third, who had been beaten by group leaders Italy earlier in the day.
But with a box-office October coming up, a two-point cushion over their Norwegian counterparts means that qualification is still very much possible.
“The positive is that it is still in our hands,” said Crawford. “We have Norway in Cork and we have Italy. When the draw was made all those months back, had you said you would be two points ahead of Norway, and you could qualify with two games to go, you would have taken it.
“I believe in that group of players. That was just one of those performances. When we had that spell creating chances, we had to take those moments. We have to learn that we cannot switch off.
“Do I think we can win the group? I certainly do.
“We will have to produce a better showing against Norway. Yes, it’s not nice and it’s a horrible feeling but we have to make sure it does not happen again.”
