The Irish travel to Poland next week to face the hosts, Greece and Belarus with all four sides battling to secure a place in the finals tournament in Bulgaria in May.

Mohan’s preparations have been hampered by injuries to Jake Doyle-Hayes, Steven Kinsella and Anthony Scully but the Irish coach believes his squad can adapt to the challenge.

"The lads who have been ruled out are quality attacking players but it opens the door for others to coming in. It's naturally very disappointing for the lads and the squad as a whole but we have faith in the rest of the group,” said Mohan.

"There is the opportunity for two sides to qualify out of this group which gives us more of a chance but at this level there will be nothing easy.

“All of the sides at this level came through tough qualifying rounds. Greece didn't concede a goal at that stage, Poland are the hosts and are strong - they have some hot prospects and have scored a lot of goals as they won all their games in qualifying and Belarus qualified with Russia from their group and beat Wales to qualify.

"But we are focused totally on Greece and a lot of work going into that. They are our first challenge.”

Mohan’s side beat Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands then drew with Scotland in their qualifying round matches in September.

"Attacking wise we've created a lot of chances and scored goals in qualifying and friendlies. We need to cut out the individual errors at the back. It's a big test and one we're looking forward to it," he added.

The group winners and seven runners-up with the best record against the sides first and third in their section progress to the finals to join the hosts Bulgaria in the 16-team UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals from 6 to 22 May 2015.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND U17s:

Caoimhin Kelleher (Ringmahon Rangers)

Thomas McDermott (Tottenham Hotspur)

Luke Wade-Slater (St Kevin’s Boys)

Corey O'Keeffe (Birmingham City)

Conor Masterson (Liverpool)

Shane Hanney (Shamrock Rovers)

Oisin Connolly (Sligo Rovers)

JJ Lunney (Preston North End)

Daniel Mandrou (Brighton & Hove Albion)

Brandon Payne (Celtic FC)

Conor Levingstone (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Avis Ganiyu (Sunderland AFC)

Connor Ronan (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Zachary Elbouzedi (West Bromwich Albion)

Jamie Aherne (Lucan United)

Trevor Clarke (Unattached)

Darragh Leahy (Coventry City)

Josh Barrett (Reading)

FIXTURES

Saturday, March 21, 2015

UEFA U17 Championships Elite Qualifying Round Group 4

Republic of Ireland v Greece, Amica, Wronki (POL) (11.00am Irish)

Monday, March 23, 2015

UEFA U17 Championships Elite Qualifying Round Group 4

Belarus v Republic of Ireland, Amica, Wronki (POL)(11.00am Irish)

Thursday, March 26, 2015

UEFA U17 Championships Elite Qualifying Round Group 4

Republic of Ireland v Poland, Groclin Dyskobolia, Grodzisk Wielkopolski (POL) (5.00pm Irish)