Republic of Ireland Men’s Under-21s will face Finland in the 2027 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Play-Offs.

The first leg will be played in Finland with the second in Ireland. Match venues, dates and kick-off times will be announced in due course.

Jim Crawford’s young Irish team booked a play-off place after defeating back-to-back European champions England 3-1 in front of a sold-out Munster FA Turners Cross Stadium on Tuesday night.

It represented an impressive turnaround for Ireland who had to defeat Slovakia away, Kazakhstan at home and England to have a chance of making their second ever play-off.

They’ll come up against an impressive Finland team who beat Spain in qualifiers and appeared at the most recent Under-21 European Championships in Slovakia last year.

Speaking after the draw Head Coach Jim Crawford said: “Our group of players have done exceptionally well to earn the right to be in a play-off and now they get an opportunity to test themselves against top quality opposition.

“Finland are a very good team, any team with their qualifying record, including a win over Spain, will have our utmost respect. The flip side of that is other teams will be seeing the results we’ve produced in the last few months. Drawing with Croatia, who topped their group, winning away in Slovakia, overcoming a challenging Kazakhstan side and then last Tuesday we conclude the campaign with a win over the European Champions England.

“They’ll be two exciting games but it’s an opportunity for our players to make history and become the first Ireland Under-21s team to make the European Championships.”