Farrugia hoping for big things from exciting Irish 21s team

The Irish under-21 football team has gone under a revolution of sorts during the last year or two, with former Dundalk manager, Stephen Kenny, getting a great tune out of this fine set of young footballers.

One of those players is Neil Farrugia, the french-born left winger who currently plies his trade with Shamrock Rovers in the League of Ireland. He is currently studying in University College Dublin, where he used to play his football, while balancing that with the professional football life with Rovers.

Farrugia told the Liberty “I was delighted when Stephen Kenny got the job of the 21s manager. He has had so much success with Dundalk in the League of Ireland and brings a lot of pedigree to the job. Alongside that, he is known for playing the right style of football, an attacking style that it entertaining to play within and to watch.”

“The standard within the squad is very high at the moment and it is a very good crop of players. The squad gets on well together and there is a good atmosphere within the side. A lot of that comes down to the gaffer, he is creating something special in this under-21s set-up. Kenny is rebuilding the development in Ireland that has been missing for a few years. It has led to plenty of hype for the 21s team, which I’m very honoured and proud to be part of.”

This Irish under-21s team is currently sitting pretty in their qualifying group for the European u21 2021 Football Championship. In what seemed a daunting group which included Italy, Sweden and Iceland, Ireland sit top of the group after six games of their campaign. A 1-0 loss away to Iceland is the only defeat for this side in this batch of matches, with impressive wins over Sweden and Armenia away standing out. 

“You have a lot of quality footballers in this squads, lads playing for Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton and Norwich. These are top clubs and these are top young players. We don’t fear anyone in this group, whether it’s Sweden or Italy or anyone. We treat every single game the same, we go out looking to play the way we want to play and try to get big results. That’s the way the gaffer wants us to play and we enjoy trying to implement that style of football,” said Farrugia.

The Irish team have a key game at home to Sweden in their qualifying campaign coming up soon at Tallaght Stadium. This would be a win that would put this Irish side well on their way to qualifying for the 2021 competition in Hungary.