Republic of Ireland under-21 manager Jim Crawford calls for fans to take their seats ahead of Israel clash

Israel represent a difficult challenge for Jim Crawford's Republic of Ireland under-21 side as they aim to be the first Irish men's side at this age-group to qualify for a major tournament.

Their opponents finished second in their group behind Germany and ahead of both Poland and Hungary.

They feature several players who have made their senior international debut and include the likes of Liel Abada who has started the season well for Celtic.

Their under-19 side were defeated in the European Championship final by England after initially going ahead.

"Israel are a physical team, they are well organised and mixed with some really talented players. There are five players have gone to play for the senior team but I would imagine some of those will be back.

"I know the boy Abada has played with the 21s in this campaign but he has gone and scored goals with Celtic. I don't know will he come back but they are a talented team and it will be by no means an easy game.

"You only have to look at their campaign where they played Germany twice and got beaten by the odd goal in both. In one of them Germany got two late goals to win 3-2 so it's not going to be an easy task.

"They beat Poland and drew with Poland so there is so much pedigree there. They overcame Hungary as well to come second and earn the playoff spot. It’s going to be a challenging game."

Italy were the only team to win in Tallaght Stadium over the course of the campaign. Crawford is calling for a vociferous home crowd to encourage the team on Friday week.

"It's important to get a result there in Tallaght, but it’s a cliche, it’s only half-time then. So even if you get a result you still have a lot of work to do going over to Tel Aviv.

"If you are on the wrong side of a result you