Ireland U19s suffer defeat despite Ellen Molloy wonder goal

Dave Connell's team were playing the first of three games as part of a mini tournament in the headquarters of the Portuguese Football Federation

Republic of Ireland U19 1 Norway U19 2

Ellen Molloy scored an excellent goal on her debut Republic of Ireland Women's Under-19 debut but it wasn't enough as they fell to a 2-1 defeat in Lisbon.

Dave Connell's team were playing the first of three games as part of a mini tournament in the headquarters of the Portuguese Football Federation and it proved to be a good test.

Eight of the starting XI are regulars in the SSE Airtricity Women's National League, including Wexford Youths midfielder Molloy who was outstanding for the full 90 minutes.

Norway started brightly but they found a stubborn Irish defence in their way with Jessie Stapleton leading by example with a brave block inside the opening five minutes.

Up the other end, Eva Mangan went close with a shot that just sailed over the crossbar, while Molloy was superb at times with her close control and Kerryanne Brown almost scored with a chipped effort.

The opposition, however, took the lead on 22 minutes when goalkeeper Rugile Auskalnyte parried a shot that was followed up by Cathinka Tandberg to fire into the bottom corner of the net.

Ireland tried to hit back but they fell further behind when Tandberg got her second goal six minutes later when a scramble inside the penalty area left the ball free for the Norwegian No 7 to fire in.

After a period of sustained pressure, Molloy got her reward with a fine goal, having ghosted past three players before executing superbly. Ireland will feel that they should have got more after that but it wasn't to be.

Games against Portugal and Denmark are still to come, but Connell will be pleased with a lot of his team's play and the performances of his young players.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Auskalnyte (Duffy 77); Kinnevey (O'Kane 88), Doherty, Stapleton, Brennan; Mangan (Slattery 60), Devaney (Slevin 77); Watkins (Lynch 77), Molloy, Brown (Corbet 88); McLaughlin (Doherty 60).

NORWAY: Panengstuen; Braut Brunes, Luthcke, Sorbo, Johansen; Tandberg, Skretting, Dirdal, Laupstad; Svandal, Birkelund, Hammer Ron.

Referee: Filipa Cunha (Portugal).