Ireland Men’s Under-17s were unlucky to lose 2-0 to an Under-18 Türkiye team in Kotoriba, Croatia.

An early strike from Enes Cinemre and a second-half finish from Emre Erdogan was enough for the Turkish to secure the win.

Colin O’Brien’s young Boys in Green will feel hard done by in a performance that had their older opponents on the back foot for large parts of the game.

However they were chasing the game after four minutes when Cinemre got on the end of a well delivered cross and he headed home. From there Ireland grew into the game with Michael Noonan and Jaden Umeh a constant threat.

George Moloney in the Irish goal pulled off a brilliant save from captain Berkay Aslan. And later the Ausburg midfielder, Aslan, struck the bar as Türkiye showed their quality.

Ireland came close to levelling it up before the break when Niall Sullivan saw a free header just go wide of the post in the 38^th minute. He then got on the end of a goal-mouth scramble but saw his attempt go over the bar.

After the break it was all Ireland, Umeh skipped past his man before delivering a cross across the face of goal that just evaded the in-running Noonan.

Umeh then had another opportunity when he managed to break free on goal but his attempt trickled agonisingly wide of the post.

But with 66 minutes on the clock Türkiye gave themselves a two-goal cushion. A quick passing move unlocked the Irish defence and Erdogan raced through to apply the finish.

That would prove to be the winner with O’Brien’s team back in action on Monday morning.
 

Türkiye: Bitterge, Eliguzel, Yagiz Aydin, Aslan (C), Duldar,  Cinemre, Ilhan, Arda Kara, Argun, Bircan, Katirag: Substitutes: Stancic, Ince, Simsek, Arac, Ozcan, Lus, Sen, Erdogan, Maldar, Cakiroglu, Ozturk, Erdursun.

Ireland: Moloney,  McAteer (Butler, 46’), Gabbidon (Cullen, 76’), McDonagh, Kovalevskis (Dunne, 58’), Finneran (C) (Sherlock, 58’), Sullivan, Ozhianvuna (Tollett, 58’), Hayes (Spaight, 46’), Umeh (Lee, 58’), M. Noonan (Akinrintayo, 58’).

Referee: Jasmin Horvat (Croatia)