Under-21 Euro qualifier: Andorra 4 Republic of Ireland 0
The Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2027 qualification hopes suffered a devastating blow on a torrid night in Andorra after the bottom seeds inflicted a humiliating defeat.
With Slovakia losing 4-0 at home to England, a win would have moved the Boys in Green within touching distance of the playoffs.
Halfway through the campaign, Ireland could have been sitting pretty; three points adrift of Slovakia with a game in hand ahead of facing them again in September.
Instead, Jim Crawford and his players lost to a team recording only its fourth competitive victory at under-21 level. They’ll now will have to carry this defeat with them through Christmas and into the new year before they play again in March.
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It was a remarkable capitulation, albeit against a team that forced the issue at Tallaght Stadium last month when Michael Noonan scored the only goal of the second-half.
This time, Ireland were quickly in the horrors, reeling from a seven-minute first-half meltdown that saw Andorra race into a scarcely believable 2-0 lead.
But they were good value for it, showing a ruthless streak to pounce on back-to-back defensive errors from Ireland captain James Abankwah.
First, the Watford loanee headed a long punt from goalkeeper Marc De Castro but skewed it sideways. Alex Cornella’s deep cross was headed back across goal by Ot Remolins and Gerard Sola scored from close range.
Still, Crawford preached calm from the sidelines, safe in the knowledge there were only 16 minutes gone in the game. Plenty of time left to rescue the situation.
As it happens, Ireland were left with a major problem to solve midway through the opening half as the night spiralled out of control.
Again, De Castro went direct and Abankwah came to deal with it. This time, the former St Pat’s defender shielded Aron Rodrigo from the ball and appeared to have things under control. Until, that was, he played a sloppy pass to Darius Lipsiuc that was intercepted by Hugo Ferreira and arrowed high into the net.
Ireland’s attacks were few and far between, with Jacob Devaney and Conor McManus cobbling together the best of them. But the Boys in Green were toothless in a terrible opening half, and it only got worse thereafter.
Andorra were celebrating their third goal four minutes into the second-half after a corner was worked to Rodrigo. When his 25-yard effort clipped an Irish player in the box, it fell kindly to Ian Olivera who slashed the ball home.
Ireland goalkeeper Noah Jauny could do nothing about it and looked haunted by what was unfolding. But he didn’t help matters by conceding the penalty that put Andorra 4-0 up with 16 minutes to go.
Jauny raced off his line to beat Nil Boutarfas to a low ball but pushed the striker when he got to his feet. Sola buried the penalty to round out a miserable night that a shell-shocked Ireland never saw coming.
ANDORRA: De Castro; Borra, Acosta, Olivera, Cornella; Remolins, Rodrigo (Guma 69), M Rodriguez (G Rodriguez 69), Ferreira (Torne 78); Sola (Dominguez 86), Boutarfas (Carrau 86).
REP OF IRELAND: Jauny; Abankwah (Moorhouse 75), Okagbue, Grehan; Mullins (Murphy 45), McManus (Slater 78), Hakiki (Melia 45), Lipsiuc, Devaney; O’Mahony (Lonergan 75), Kone-Doherty.
Referee: A Lashuk (Belarus).
