Lessons from Luxembourg but big San Marino win expected for Crawford's U21s

Republic of Ireland under-21 manager Jim Crawford has one key message for his players ahead of this evening's Euro 2025 qualifier against San Marino – there’s no easy game in international football.

That may seem a bit unnecessary against lowly opponents who arrive at Turner’s Cross having conceded nine goals without reply in their two games to date, but Crawford can point to last year’s 1-1 draw with Luxembourg as a real warning shot.

"It was a huge learning curve, we created a few chances against Luxembourg and we didn’t convert them," Crawford said of that game.

"We brought Colm Whelan on, he scores a fantastic goal and you’re going 'okay.’ But they were so dangerous on the counter-attack and it was causing us some issues. Ultimately it cost us two points because towards the end of the game they got a counter-attack and they got a penalty from it.

"It was hugely disappointing. Certainly from the staff, we’ve learned from it and it’s about us getting that message across to the players that there’s no easy games in international football.

"San Marino are going to bring a different type of challenge. Yeah, they’ll be tough to break down because they get bodies behind the ball but also they can be quite effective in counter-attacks.

"They played against Norway the other day and they had a couple of chances at 0-0 early in the game, so the players are well aware of that."

Ireland’s Group A campaign started in perfect fashion as Aidomo Emakhu’s 96th minute winner game them a 3-2 opening day win against Turkey.

The U21s are also boosted by the return of Sinclair Armstrong, who made his senior debut against the Netherlands on Sunday, and Conor Carty who has shaken off illness and trained with the team ahead of this game. They will be