Ireland Men’s Under-21s suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat away to Finland in the first leg of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship Play-Off amidst a blizzard in Tampere.

An Onni Helen header just before the half-time break separated the sides with the game disrupted multiple times by the snowy conditions. Referee Christian-Petru Ciochirca had to call the game to a halt in the first half to allow ground staff to clear the lines on the pitch and the half-time interval was extended to 40 minutes as the conditions worsened leaving a blanket of snow.

Despite this both teams produced an exciting contest. Finland started the game brightest Liam Möller’s cross across the face of goal was brilliantly cut out by Alex Murphy as they looked to hurt Ireland early on. Finland always looked a threat out wide but Ireland were able to snuff out the danger.

Ireland did have the ball in the net in first-half additional time when Owen Elding, making his Under-21s debut, glanced in a header in from a Jamie Mullins cross but the Hibernian man’s strike was ruled out by the assistant referee’s offside flag.

Moments later, as with the first half was about to conclude, Finland took the lead. Möller was allowed space to pick out a cross and substitute Helen was able to head into the far corner for 1-0.

After the extended half-time break Finland were on the front foot Helen hit the foot of the post. Three minutes later Noah Jauny produced a stunning save from a Samuli Miettinen header and then Ilari Kangasniemi hit the side netting as the home side piled on the pressure.

But Ireland had a great chance to draw parity in the 67^th minute. Trent Kone Doherty whipped in a cross that was met by Jamie Mullins at the far post. His looped header struck the crossbar, and bounced down to Elding whose rebounded header was somehow hooked off the line by Matias Siltanen. From the resulting corner Cathal McCarthy’s header was knocked back across goal from Alex Murphy which just needed a Kone Doherty connection to convert but Finland were able to clear.

That would remain the last clear cut chance of the game with Finland heading the second leg in Cork on Tuesday evening with a slender advantage.

Speaking after the game Head Coach Jim Crawford said: “It was an interesting game, in terms of the conditions. Playing in a blizzard was quite a challenge – you couldn’t see the lines and then an extended half-time break. We started very sluggish, then we started to show encouraging signs but Finland score with a poor goal from us to concede.

“Second half we start on our heels again and then we make changes and begin to get a foothold in the game that allowed us to get up the pitch.

The most pleasing thing is the tie is well and truly alive, we could have been having a conversation where Tuesday’s game could have practically been a dead rubber. There is a lot of room for improvement, we saw the levels in the last window and we know we have huge scope to be better.

“It means it will be a huge game in Cork and we will be hoping for a huge crowd behind us because we need all the support we can get to over the line and get to a European Finals.”

Tickets to Tuesday’s second leg at the Munster FA Turners Cross Stadium in Cork are available here

Finland: Jantunen, Ylitolva, Kangasniemi, S.Miettinen, Galvez, Mentu, Siltanen (C), Söderback (Mero, 85’), Tauriainen (Helen, 21’), Ruoppi, Möller (Europaeus, 85’).

Ireland: Jauny, McCarthy, Grehan (C), Murphy, Gallagher (Egan, 61’), McManus, Finneran, Devaney (McMahon-Brown, 85’), Mullins, Elding, Lonergan (Kone-Doherty, 61’)

Referee: Christian-Petru Ciochirca (Austria)