Delaney strikes for bronze

If there was still some lingering disappointment in the Irish camp with their failure to make this afternoon's final of these European Youth Championships it was hard to detect amid the euphoria with which they greeted the final whistle in last night's third place play-off in Linkoping.

They may have fallen some way short of reliving last summer's glory in Cyprus but with this well deserved win over a decidedly negative Greek side, Ireland's reputation as the continent's most consistent performers at this level was firmly underpinned.

The record books will show that their bronze medals came courtesy of a Clive Delaney goal in the first minute of the second half but, to a far greater extent than in last year's final against Germany, this was a convincing win for the better of two teams, an altogether more comfortable affair than the narrowness of the scoreline would suggest.

From beginning to end, the Irish were on top and if the strong breeze and the glare of the setting sun went some way to preventing the game from being a classic, the way in which Brian Kerr's midfield trio of Ger Crossley, Colin Healy and Graham Barrett firmly took a hold of the contest helped to ensure that there were plenty of chances, most of them around the generally heavily populated Greek penalty area.

The Greeks, to their credit, were less defensive than might have been expected after their dreadful group matches but in the first half they gave the Irish acres of space in which to push the ball around.

In the second half, after they went a goal down, they simply didn't have the wherewithal to wrestle control of the contest away from a team that was now, for the first time in the tournament, dictating the style of the game and looking to be enjoying it.

Both of Ireland's best chances from play fell to Liverpool's Richie Partridge, the first the result of a blunder by goalkeeper Apostolos Papadopoulos who sent a poor kick-out straight to the winger, the second the end of a result of a neat little move through the centre by Clive Delaney and Gary Doherty.

But on both occasions the Irishman fumbled the shooting chance and it was left to the big UCD centre half, making his competitive debut at this level, to give a demonstration in the art of finishing.

His chance came from Ireland's eighth corner of the game but the goal, as Delaney more or less admitted afterwards, was in fact just a little fortuitous. As the ball came in from the left where Partridge and Padraig Drew had linked to take the corner short, the student initially lost sight of it and then met it awkwardly as he moved forwards with the top of his head. The ball flew towards the goalkeeper but he was already moving the wrong way and, though he made plenty of contact, he simply couldn't prevent the ball from hopping across the line.

In the closing minutes Alexandros Moutidis wasted a much better heading opportunity at the other end and aside from that Joe Murphy was called to make just one really good stop in a game that must have left the Irish management team wishing that the original draw for these finals had placed Ireland in the other, clearly less cut-throat group of nations.

As he beamed with pride, flanked by Delaney and UEFA's man of the match, Crossley, afterwards, though, Brian Kerr didn't look too bothered with what might have been. "Sure, there was still that bit of disappointment left in the squad after the other night but we put that behind us out there today and did enough, made four or five clear cut chances, to win the game a good bit more easily than we did.

"It's very satisfactory for us," he added with a broad grin. "To finish third, France or Spain would have settled for that. But to finish fourth, first and third in three straight years . . . well, everybody respects that."

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Murphy (Tranmere); O'Halloran (Cork City), Delaney (UCD), Gavin (Middlesbrough), Clarke (Stoke City); Healy (Celtic), Barrett (Arsenal), Crossley (Unattached); Partridge (Liverpool), Doherty (Luton Town), Drew (Home Farm Fingal). Subs: Baker (Shelbourne) for Drew (62 mins).

GREECE: A Papadopoulos (PAOK Saloniki); Nastos (PAOK Saloniki); D Papadopoulos (Akratitos Athens), Tavlaridis (Iraklis Saloniki), Chorianopoulos (Panathaikos), Siampanis (Agrotikos Asteras); Taralidis (Almopos Arideas), Vakouftsis (Fiorentina), Venetis (Larisa); Charisteas (Aris Saloniki), Iordanidis (OFI Crete). Subs: Moutidis (Panseraikos) for Charisteas (53 mins), Theodoridis (Aris Saloniki) for Venetis (67 mins), Gogas (PAE Proodeftiki) for D Papadopoulos (71 mins).

Referee: L Pucek (Czech Republic).