Republic of Ireland Men’s Under-19s kept their Elite Round qualification hopes alive after beating Cyprus 1-0 in their second U19 EURO Qualifier.

Aston Villa’s Alfie Lynskey gave Ireland the lead after 11 minutes in a must win game in the Netherlands.

After losing their first qualifier against Kazakhstan Tom Mohan’s side got off to a great start when Lynskey’s first-time strike from the edge of the area found the bottom corner.

Ireland were the stronger of the teams but in the 56^th minute Cyprus were awarded a penalty. Darius Cailloce was adjudged to have fouled captain Gavrill Psilogenis in the area,  Michail Theodosiou stepped up but saw his spotkick miss the target.

Cyprus forced Patricio Shroeder into a save in 72^nd minute as they searched for an equaliser but it was Ireland who looked more likely to score the game’s second with Ethan Simunyu and Zak O’Sullivan having chances.

But Ireland saw out the win setting up their game against Netherlands on Tuesday where a result that betters Kazakhstan’s will see them go through.

Ireland: Schroeder, Roche (C), Cailloce, Otegbayo, McGlinchey, Oluwabiyi, Brennan, Mulligan (Kizenga, 63’), Lynskey, Oladiti (Quinn, 63’), O’Sullivan (Simunyu, 75’).

Cyprus: Michos, Vattis (Petoussis, 53’), Lysandrou, K. Ioannou, Michalas, Theodosiou, Psilogenis, Papadopoulos (Efsthathiou, 80’), Panagi (Charalampous, 63’), Ioannou (Skafi, 46’), Evangelou (Loukaidis, 63’)