Ireland finished the tournament with seven points. Georgia beat Belgium today and finished with six, Portugal had three from their win over Belgium and the Belgians accrued one from their draw with Ireland.

Spillane’s crucial goal arrived following a three-man move which started with centre-back Brendan Maloney winning the ball in his own half. The Nottingham Forest defender exchanged passes with Paul Cahillane on the half-way line and fed Spillane who then dribbled the ball around the advancing goalkeeper before shooting into an empty net.

Sean McCaffrey’s team beat Georgia 3-1 on Thursday in their opener and the following day staged a remarkable late recovery to salvage a 2-2 draw against Belgium. Two goals in the final four minutes of the match by David Hutton and Michael Spillane cancelled out goals by Belgium on either side of half-time.

Ireland produced another late rally to claim the result they needed. Manager Sean McCaffrey chose to push Spillane up into attack from midfield for the final ten minutes and the tactical move paid dividends shortly afterwards.

McCaffrey is preparing for the UEFA U-19 Championship qualifiers which will kick-off next September and paid tribute to his squad’s resilience in challenging circumstances.

“I felt that it was only a matter of time before we scored,” he said. “We put a lot of pressure on their defence in the final stages and I was confident that the goal would come.

“It was a very similar situation to the Belgium game on Friday where we went for broke near the end. There’s very little point playing these games without taking risks and we played the final 12 minutes with three at the back and four attackers up front.”

He added: “There is a lot of character amongst this group of players but they also like to play attractive football. We went into this tournament with five of our first-choice players but the replacements showed they can could in and contribute.”

Ireland dominated the first-half and Daniel Corcoran was unlucky not to fire Ireland ahead when he broke free on goal only to see his shot blocked by the hosts’ keeper.

Portugal improved in the second half and Ireland were forced to endure some nervous moments as Carvalhas and Taz worked their magic around the penalty area.

In the end, Spillane played the skipper’s part by coming up with his second goal in as many matches.

Manager Sean McCaffrey was delighted to use all the members of his squad over the three games as he assessed the potential of players who will constitute the Republic of Ireland’s squad in next season’s UEFA U-19 qualifying ties. The triumphant Ireland squad return home on Monday afternoon.