REPORT | MU16 | Ireland 6-0 Greece
St. Patrick’s Athletic’s Michael Noonan hit a hat-trick as Paul Osam’s side cruised to victory over the Greeks to end the competition as runners up.
Billy Hayes, Grady McDonnell and Sam Steward also got on the scoresheet with the win the side’s seventh victory of the season.
Ireland were ahead inside five minutes when Noonan headed home from a corner to score three-games running in the tournament. Seven minutes later Noonan would double Ireland’s lead again with another header - again from a corner.
Noonan’s club mate Hayes put the young Boys in Green 3-0 up in the 25th minute after finishing at the back post following great work from Max Kovalevskis.
McDonnell made it 4-0 with another header to cap off an excellent first-half display by Osam’s team.
Any chance of an unlikely Greek comeback were put to bed early in the second half. McDonnell was felled inside the penalty area and Noonan stepped up to seal his hat-trick from the spot - his 12th international goal of the season.
Captain Steward exposed frailties in the Greek’s defence from set-pieces when he netted his second international goal of the season from a corner to make it 6-0 in the 67th minute.
That would conclude the scoring with Ireland recording their biggest win of the campaign and the second time this season they’ve netted six in a game.
Ireland: Topcu (Alex Noonan, 46), Oladiti (Canny, 58), McDonagh, Steward (C) (McGrath, 58), Sherlock, McMahon Brown, Ogbonna (Martos, 58), McDonnell (Campbell, 68), Kovalevskis (O’Neill, 58), Noonan (Tollett 58), Hayes (Umeh, 58)
Greece: Stamellos, Mokris, Kapellas, Nikolakidis, Trikaliotis, Loutzianotis, Gazis, Mantazelis, Papadopoulos, Chnaris, Venetis, Tourkochoritis
Substitutes: Arvanitakis, Christopoulos, Lagoudakis, Minasidis, Krommydas, Michaildis, Savvidis, Berdos, Sidiropoulos, Xanthopoulos, Avramoulis
International Friendly Results
Monday, January 22 | Türkiye 3-1 Ireland
Wednesday, January 24 | Ireland 2-1 Czechia
Friday, January 26 | Ireland 6-0 Greece