Tommie Hoban captained Republic of Ireland Under-21s as they ended their UEFA Under-21 Championships qualifying campaign with a 2-0 defeat at group winners Germany.
The Watford defender lined up at centre-half in a back four and helped keep the hosts at bay during the first-half yesterday evening. But the Germans made sure of their place in the play-offs with goals from Philipp Hofman and Jonas Hofman early in the second half.
The Irish ended their group with eight points from eight games and will play Norway in a friendly next month before turning their attention to the next qualifying campaign in 2015.
Hoban’s Hornets teammate Jonathan Bond had to settle for being an unused substitute as England Under-21s made it eight qualifying wins out of nine with a 1-0 victory in Lithuania.
Gareth Southgate’s Young Lions were already certain of reaching the play-offs, but it looked like they would drop points for only the second time in their qualifiers during an often frustrating evening in Kaunas until Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane netted the winner with nine minutes remaining.
England, who also featured Watford-born Tom Carroll and former Hornets loanee Nathaniel Chalobah in their starting XI, finish their qualifying campaign with a trip to Moldova on Tuesday night.
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