Republic of Ireland 1 Azerbaijan 0An awful lot of late pressure eventually paid off for the Irish under-21s in Tallaght where the persistence of Noel King’s side was rewarded in the ninth minute of added when Shaun Donnellan scored to give them victory over Azerbaijan. The incentive for Ireland to win was increased as the game kicked off and word fed through from Kosovo that the home side there had held group leaders Germany. Republic of Ireland: O’Hara Manchester United); Whelan (Liverpool/Yeovil Town), Donnellan (Yeovil Town), Sweeney Stoke City/Bristol Rovers), Kane (Cork City); Mulraney (Inverness CT), Rice (West Ham), Cullen (West Ham); Manning (QPR), Grego-Cox (Woking), Curtis (Derry City). Subs: Shodipo (QPR/Colchester United) for Mulraney (56 mins), Ronan Hale (Derry City) for Kane (82 mins), Quigley (Bournemouth/Boreham Wood) for Curtis (89 mins). Subs: Shahverdiyev for Koekcue (58 mins), Muradov for Nasirov (65 mins), Buludov for Sheydaev (86 mins).

Source: The Irish Times March 27, 2018 21:11 UTC