Barry Coffey last night fired Ireland to a last-four clash with Portugal and then declared: “It’s not every day that we qualify for a semi-finals of a European Championships.”
The Celtic midfielder’s 80th minute winner against the Czech Republic last night sealed a first European Under-19 Championships semi-final berth since 2011.
“It’s unbelievable,” he added. “We are in the semi-finals and they are in the semi-finals, so right now it’s an even game.
“It’s a two-horse race and we’ll back ourselves, we always do. We’ll get our heads down and work extremely hard.
“We will give them the respect they deserve, but absolutely we hopefully will put a show on when it comes.”
The win came courtesy of goals from Jonathan Afolabi on 35 minutes and Coffey, whose 80th minute strike came moments after the Czechs had drawn level.
Afolabi’s opener was a combination of pace, power, persistence and honesty.
He chased a long Kameron Ledwidge clearance into the left-hand corner and, despite being fouled by full-back Vaclav Mika, he was quickly back on his feet.
So quick that Greek referee Anastasios Papapetrou hadn’t time to whistle for a foul.
Papapetrou allowed play go on and Afolabi cut inside, side-stepped David Heidenreich and sent his low drive past goalkeeper Matej Kovar.
The Czechs drew level on 79 minutes when Vasil Kusej’s clever back-heel snuck just inside the left-hand upright.
Their celebrations had barely ended when the brilliant Joe Hodge sent Coffey racing into the area, and he calmly slotted the ball past Kovar.
“We are just delighted. It was such hard work because the Czech Republic are really tough opponents,” said Tom Mohan.
However, he will have to do without skipper Lee O’Connor and goalscorer Afolabi for the final, as they picked up harsh late bookings.
For the pair, it was their second yellows of the tournament.
“It’s very disappointing that he is going to miss the semi-finals, himself and Lee, because they have been superb for us,” added Mohan.
“That’s probably left a sour taste in our mouths, but we’ll bounce back again.”
IRELAND: Brian Maher; Andrew Lyons, Mark McGuinness, Oisin McEntee, Kameron Ledwidge; Joe Hodge, Brandon Kavanagh (Barry Coffey 56), Lee O’Connor; Ali Reghba (Festy Ebosele 90), Tyreik Wright (Matt Everitt 46), Jonathan Afolabi (Conor Grant 90).
CZECH: Matej Kovar; Vaclav Mika (Zbynek Konopasek 46), David Heidenreich, David Zima, Michal Fukala (Daniel Finek 18); David Machacek (Lukas Husek 85), Filip Kaloc; Vasil Kusej, Tomas Zlatohlavek (Tomas Solil 78), Michal Kohut; Tomas Kepl (Jakub Selnar 78).
REFEREE: Anastasios Papapetrou (Greece)
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