Number 15 and we look at the Ireland Under-18s win at the European Championships to complete a memorable double in 1998.
We have already spoken about the Ireland under-16s win in 1998 in Brian Kerr’s first year in charge of the underage teams, this second win rounded off a memorable double as the Under-18s took home the European Under-18 Championship in Cyprus.
Robbie Keane, Richard Dunne, Gary Docherty and Stephen McPhail all went on to carve out great careers for themselves, while others like Liam George, Alex O’Reilly and Gerard Crossley disappeared into obscurity.
Ireland qualified from their group via goal difference, having lost to England earlier. Indeed English boss Howard Wilkinson was so confident of qualifying from the group that he was already complaining of the three-hour reception his young side would be obligated to attend ahead of the final.
Robbie Keane scored twice as Ireland beat Cyprus 3-Nil to qualify on goal difference for the final against Germany who did the same thing.
Ireland and Germany finished 1-1 in normal time, Keane producing a bit of magic to set up Barry Quinn for Ireland’s goal.
We won the shootout with O’Reilly saving two spot-kicks and the dreadlocked Liam George clinching it with his. It was to be Ireland’s last major tournament win, although our Under-19s did reach the semi-final stage of the reformatted successor to that 1998 tournament last year.
We’re counting down the days to Ireland’s Euro 2012 opener against Croatia. Join us every day in the build-up to the tournament for another classic Irish soccer memory.
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