Jim Crawford hails ‘sensational’ Ireland victory but fires warning ahead of vital Tallaght showdown

Sam Curtis’ 84th-minute strike secured a fully deserved win for Crawford’s young guns as they moved one step closer to a first European Championship qualification, with the Istanbul victory taking them back up to second in Group A with three games remaining.

The U-21 head coach said he wasn’t surprised with his side’s impressive display given how they have applied themselves in training this week, but issued a clear warning that they must bring the same levels to Tallaght Stadium when fifth seeds Latvia come to town next Tuesday – a game he labelled as the most important in the team’s history.

“The shift they put in was sensational. They have to be proud of their achievement, coming to a place like this and winning the game. The way they have worked during the week, it doesn’t surprise me,” said Crawford, after making it back-to-back wins over Turkey to move to two points off top seeds Italy in Euro 2025 qualifying.

“I’m absolutely thrilled for the staff and the players. To win any international game is a huge thing, but to come away from home against a really good Turkish team, to keep a clean sheet and win the game it’s fantastic for the boys, it really is.

“But what we have to do now is match that with a victory on Tuesday at Tallaght Stadium, these three points mean nothing if we can’t get maximum points against Latvia.

“We had our cheering, back-slapping and our high fives which is great and you have to enjoy those moments in football, but it’s a quick window. Now it’s about rest and recovery and getting ourselves ready for what’s probably the most important U-21s game in our history. It’s huge, we need the three points.”

Ireland started on the backfoot at the Esenler Stadium in east Istanbul, but soon settled and enjoyed far better chances against a below-par Turkish outfit, who rarely threatened Josh Keeley’s goal.

“The first 20 minutes was a real eye-opener in terms of them being on the front foot,” added Crawford.

“We understood that was going to be the process of the game, they were going to have a little bit of control, probably too much control if I’m honest. The water break gave us an opportunity to go over a few things and to the letter of the law, the lads got control of the game and we looked ok.

“Second half I thought Turkey were the team who were looking tired and vulnerable. Keeping the ball in the second half, we were a lot better and all of a sudden we scored the goal from Joe Hodge setting Sam Curtis up to score what turned out to be the winner.

“After that was a snapshot of what this group is about because the boys defended for their lives, defended with everything they had, whether it was Anselmo Garcia MacNulty, Matt Healy, James Abankwah, Connor O’Riordan, I could go through the whole team.”

After scoring his first goal at U-21 level, Sheffield United’s Curtis (on loan at Peterborough) paid tribute to his teammates for grinding out the three points as Turkey threw everything in search of a late leveller.

“Ricer (Stephen Rice, assistant) told me ‘his legs were gone’. I took advantage of that, ran him (Bartug Elmaz) the other way and felt like I had the legs on him towards the end. I think it’s just down to hard work off the pitch, the extra yards and putting it in at the end of the game, it ultimately won it for us,” added 18-year-old Curtis.

“I think it’s huge. In the latter stages at 0-0 it could have gone either way. Turkey are a great team, don’t get me wrong, but I just think we had that fighting spirit in us and always knew we’d get a chance.

“We grafted out to the end. Credit to the backline and the forwards getting back to defend so late, it’s a huge win and could prove to be vital at the end of the campaign.”

Ireland host Latvia next Tuesday, having won 2-1 in Jelgava last year, while next month they take on Norway in Cork before concluding the campaign away to Italy. The nine group winners and three best runners-up qualify directly for next summer’s finals in Slovakia, while the remaining runners-up will enter a two-legged play-off in November to book their ticket to the tournament.