Ireland first to advance

The Republic of Ireland and Denmark are the first teams into the UEFA European Under-17 Championship Elite round after the completion of the opening qualifying round mini-tournament.

Slovenia denied
Hosts Ireland dominated Group 5 and were ahead by the end of Matchday 1. Denmark and Slovenia kicked off the new season with a 1-1 draw in Athlone, Adnan Bešič's early goal quickly cancelled out by Alexander Juel Andersen. Ireland fell behind against Ukraine to a curling Yegor Kartushov strike on 29 minutes in Galway but Richie Towell's free-kick was soon turned in by Conor Hourihane and after the break the scorer set up substitute Karl Sheppard to give the hosts the lead and Gavin Gunning's header made it 3-1.

Ireland through
Two days later Ireland were confirmed as group winners. Slovenia were involved in another 1-1 result, though had to come from behind against Ukraine in Longford as substitute Igor Sylantyev's goal was cancelled out five minutes from time by fellow replacement Sandi Arčon. Victory against Denmark in Athlone would therefore be enough to take Ireland through in first place and Aaron Doran and Mark Connolly struck on 31 and 40 minutes to seal a 2-0 victory.

Denmark qualify
Second position was still up for grabs, and Slovenia held it at kick-off on Matchday 3 but fell to a 1-0 defeat against Ireland in Longford as Hourihane volleyed in Greg Cunningham's injury-time cross. In any case a draw could not have given Slovenia second place as Denmark defeated Ukraine 2-0 in Galway. However, it leaves Slovenia with a lesser chance of going through as one of the two third-placed teams in the 13 groups with the best record against the top two in their pool.

McCaffrey pleased
Ireland manager Seán McCaffrey, whose team have missed out in the last three Elite rounds, said: "We played extremely well over the three matches. Tonight, we started off the game slowly but created numerous chances in the second half and I was pleased that we finally got the goal. This Slovenia team beat England 2-0 only a couple of months ago, so they had a good pedigree. Tonight, however, we didn't give them space to play and we were worthy of the win."