Ireland Men’s Under-15s suffered a 1-0 semi-final defeat to Austria in the Torneo Delle Nazioni.

A late goal by Nico Berger was enough to send the Austrians through to the final meaning Ireland will play-out a third-fourth place play-off on Wednesday.

In a repeat of last year’s semi-final, Ireland travelled across the border from their base in Udine to the mountainous town of Arnoldstein in Austria.

With an Austrian squad boasting players from the Red Bull Academy, Rapid Wien, Strurm Graz it was always going to be a challenge for the young side.

But they more than matched the Austrians who only had sighters on the Irish goal after half-an-hour. First, Fabio Ebner saw his free-kick just go over the bar then a minute later the excellent Darragh Brunton was called into action to dive at the feet of the advancing Jonas Penilhart – denying him with a superb block.

It would be the only chances in a half scheduled for 35 minutes per period as Ireland held the opposition at arm’s length.

But it was during a blistering two-minute period in the second-half where most of the action took place. In the 65th minute, St. Patrick Athletic’s Brunton pulled off a stunning save diving to his right and pushing the ball away from what looked like a certain goal. From that effort a counter attack saw David Dunne break clear and strike at goal but his effort just went wide of the far post.

Shortly after that Dunne effort the hosts broke down the left and put in a dangerous cross for Luca Mijatovic knock back for Berger to sweep home for what prove to be the winner.

Ireland threw everything they could to get back into the contest but the Austrian held out.


Austria: Hedl, Karner, Selimovic, Jakupi, Berger, Ebner, Peinhart, Posch, Swozil, Weinhandl, Mitterbauer
Substitutions: Doujak, Knezevic, Endthaler, Lins, Baresic, Barb-Dudan, Mijatovic, Schissler, Aleksic, Kolodziejczyk, Ebner, Knezevic


Ireland: Brunton, Prizeman (Ogungbe, 68'), Dumingan, Sattell (Ferizaj, 36’), Spaight, Quigley, Spelman (Collins, 56’), Ozhianvuna (C) (Sullivan, 56’), Byrne (Burke, 36’), Dunne, Molloy (Armstrong, 56’)

Torneo Delle Nazioni Results/Fixtures 
Thursday, April 25 | UAE 0-4 Ireland
Saturday, April 27 | Ireland 4-1 North Macedonia
Monday, April 29 | Austria 1-0 Ireland
Wednesday, May 1 | Ireland v TBC KO & Location TBC