Turner’s Cross set to host Republic of Ireland U21 Euro qualifiers starting in September

THE Munster Football Association has announced that Turner’s Cross will be the venue for the Republic of Ireland U21s upcoming European Championships qualifying campaign.

This follows the team coming to Cork for a sold out friendly against Iceland in March 2023.

Jim Crawford and his players will return to Leeside in September for a double header with Turkey and San Marino.

The other two teams in Ireland’s group are Italy and Norway, and only one side can qualify automatically for the final tournament.

The organisation announced the return of international football with a statement that was released on their Twitter account on Wednesday evening.

The statement read: “The @MunsterFA are delighted to announce that Turners Cross Stadium has been confirmed as the venue for the @FAIreland U21 Qualifying Campaign which kicks off in September with a home double header v Turkey & San Marino. 

"Tickets will be on Public Sale this Fri 28th July 10am.” 

Crawford did say there was a possibility that qualifiers could be played in Cork if the Iceland game was successful last March.

“There’s every opportunity that it might,” he said at the time.

“If everything goes well with regard to prep, if everything goes well with attendances, we think there is a possibility that the campaign might be held in Turner’s Cross, which would be great.

“There’s still a lot of conversations to be had. I’m certainly excited with games being played in Turner’s Cross.” 

The Iceland game was a total sell out with over 6,000 people seeing Ireland coming from behind to beat Iceland 2-1.

Kristall Mani Ingason opened the scoring that day and Tom Cannon equalised midway through the first half.

Johnny Kenny, who is on loan at Shamrock Rovers from Celtic, came off the bench and scored the winning goal at the Shed End.

Ireland have been warming up for the qualifiers with a series of friendlies. 

They played Ukraine and Kuwait last June in Austria, and a game with Gabon was cancelled as the west African country chose not to travel.

Ireland are looking at going one better than their last qualification campaign, with that tournament ending in a penalty shoot-out defeat to Israel.

The U21s, who have never made it to the European Championships, finished second in a group that contained Italy and Sweden and got to the play-offs.

That followed a run that saw memorable victories over Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

They played Israel over two legs and the first game finished 1-1 at Tallaght Stadium in Dublin, with Evan Ferguson equalising on the night. 

The teams couldn’t be separated in Tel Aviv and Israel qualified for the final tournament by beating Ireland in a penalty shoot-out.