Ireland\u2019s U21 hero Tommy Lonergan admits the buzz of scoring to beat England is the highlight of his career.<\/p>\n
Jim Crawford\u2019s were aware that only victory in Tuesday\u2019s final group game over the team that had already topped the group would suffice to seal a Euro playoff spot.<\/p>\n
Ireland will discover in Friday\u2019s 10am draw their opponents for a berth in next year\u2019s finals.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no seeding for the draw which will see Ireland paired with one of Greece, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Turkey, Netherlands or Czechia.<\/p>\n
The dates are set for November 13 and 17, with the home leg likely to be again at Turner\u2019s Cross in Cork.<\/p>\n
Waterford striker Lonergan stresses there\u2019s nothing to fear among the potential opponents after their fourth successive win came against Lee Carsley\u2019s gilded team valued at \u20ac400m.<\/p>\n
Their come-from-behind 3-1 win, sealed by Lonergan\u2019s brace either side of a Conor McManus finish, has the Irish on a high heading into the crunch period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s number one,\u201d said the 22-year-old, whose Blues side visit Bohemians in Friday\u2019s FAI Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that scoring for your country in such a pivotal game against obviously the reigning Euro champions is just perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s rivalry between England and Ireland. They had such good players on the wings, like Tyrique George, and Ethan Nwanari in midfield, so for us to beat that team in front of a crowd cheering us is the cherry on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was saying before the camp that I hadn\u2019t scored in the campaign but now have four. It all worked out for me and the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always thinking positively as if I\u2019m going to score. I got two chances and scored with both of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ireland have never reached a major U21 tournament, coming closest in 2022 when a team that featured Evan Ferguson and Finn Azaz were edged out by Israel in the playoff on penalties.<\/p>\n
Lonergan, who has brushed off competition from the likes of Michael Noonan to be Ireland\u2019s lead striker, was aware that failure to deliver a first-ever U21 win over England would spell the end of a generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could have been our last time together but we wanted to keep this going for as long as possible,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur captain, Se\u00e1n Grehan, mentioned beforehand that a few of the older lads, like me and Jamie Mullins, have been playing together since we were 10 years old.<\/p>\n
“We had rivalries between Cherry Orchard and St. Kevin\u2019s. I can\u2019t wait to link up with them again next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll watch the draw on Friday afternoon before our Cup semi to see who we get. We won\u2019t be scared of any team because we\u2019ll relish it.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of our team, Jacob Devaney and Trent (Kon\u00e9-Doherty), are young enough to be also eligible for the next campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re unbelievable, an absolute credit to themselves. They\u2019re so mature and such unbelievable players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all so humble and want to work hard for the team. We\u2019re in a really good place now. The confidence will be very high in our next few games.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n The next U21 Euro finals will be co-hosted by Serbia and Albania from June 6 to July 3, 2027.\n <\/p>\n
Already qualified for final tournament: Albania (co-hosts), Belgium, Croatia, England (holders), France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland (best runners-up), Portugal, Serbia (co-hosts), Spain\u00a0<\/p>\n
Playoffs: Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s U21 hero Tommy Lonergan admits the buzz of scoring to beat England is the highlight of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,43,5783],"class_list":["post-647624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-local-soccer","tag-news","tag-premiership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}