Second-half goals from Kader Hancar and Esra Manya were enough to see Turkey secure the three points and inflict a second defeat in three games for Republic of Ireland in the UEFA U-19 Elite Round.
Turkey started the game the better side but they were restricted to having shots from distance with Ece Turkoglu missing the target from range on five occasions during the opening half, reports fai.ie.
Ireland twice went close to breaking the deadlock before the half-time interval through Saoirse Noonan but after firing a shot straight at the keeper from the edge of the box, the Cork City striker also had a header denied by Gamze Yaman.
Turkey finally took the lead at the beginning of the second period when Hancar headed Nursen Yaprak’s superb cross past Erica Turner at the back post.
And as Ireland pressed for an equaliser, with Noonan and Lucia Lobato both going close to snatching it, Turkey sealed the victory on the break late on when Manya found the far bottom left corner of the net from the edge of the box
Republic of Ireland U-19 Head Coach Dave Connell said: “We started off well against Austria, a great performance against Spain even though we lost the game and we started off brightly against Turkey, but we just didn’t convert any of the chances we created. It’s a disappointing result and a disappointing end for a lot of the players.
“There are 11 players in this group who qualify for us again, so we will try and get them in as soon as we can, along with some of the Under 17s that are gone over age for that group.
“We have two friendly games organised against Austria later in the year ahead of the First Round qualifiers in Lithuania in October, so we’ll prepare for those. It’s been a disappointing end to this campaign, but we’ll start preparing for the next one.”
Republic of Ireland U-19s: Erica Turner, Lynn Craven, Niamh Farrelly (C), Sadhbh Doyle, Alex Kavanagh, Saoirse Noonan, Megan Mackey, Phoebe Warner (Alannah McEvoy, 46), Lucia Lobato (Aoife Thompson, 77), Naima Chemaou, Orla Casey (Sinead Donovan, 46)
Unused Subs: Naoisha McAloon, Lauryn O’Callaghan, Chloe Singleton, Tiegan Ruddy, Danielle Burke, Kate Mooney
