Ireland clinch promotion to League A by overcoming Albania
CRUCIAL STRIKE: Denise O'Sullivan of the Republic of Ireland, centre, celebrates. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
On a thunderous night in Shkodër, Denise O’Sullivan supplied a late ray of light to illuminate next year’s Euro qualifiers with two games to spare.
This fourth straight win of Ireland’s Nations League group was interrupted by a freakish thunderstorm, causing a 90-minute delay before the second half kicked off.
Kicking the ball at all in the first half was a task in itself as the downpour turned the meeting of the top and bottom seeds of the group into a lottery.
And that can lead to surprising outcomes. Ten minutes short of the welcome interval, Albania caught their visitors on the counterattack, leaving Mimoza Hamidi in the clear.
Had the conditions not been so inclement, her moment in the rain might have ensued but the ball held up in the soakage, enabling Diane Caldwell to recover and deflect the shot out for a corner.
“It was crazy,” reflected O’Sullivan, the matchwinner two minutes from full-time. “I’d never experienced anything like it in my career.
“It was literally a monsoon and you couldn’t do anything, like trap the ball. I was kicking puddles.”
Caretaker boss Eileen Gleeson agreed, describing the events afterwards while drying out.
“The first half was absolute chaos,” she noted.
“The players were soaked, you literally couldn’t walk on the pitch, never mind try and play football.
“They were unable to pass. If they tried to dribble, the ball was left behind.
“So, in those circumstances, it is a huge testament to the girls, to come out and perform after that long break.
“We didn’t know until 8.10pm what was happening. Then we’re told kick-off is 8.20pm, so there wasn’t even an opportunity for an extended warm-up.”
There may have been an overnight recess. While the deluge was forecasted, the extent of it wasn’t.
For a solid hour, rain lashed down and UEFA invoked their protocol of waiting 60 minutes before declaring the match on or off.
Anyone watching the players channelling or – for those of a certain vintage – , couldn’t have been certain play would resume.
Plan B was sleeping on it and restarting from the second-half whistle today.
“The mentality going in at half-time was that we were coming back to play,” insisted Corkwoman O’Sullivan amid the doubts.
“That was always in the back of our minds. As players, we stayed focused on doing a job in the second half.”
Stellar work by the couple of groundsmen in sweeping puddles onto the adjacent running track and an eventual easing of the rain combined for the surface to be passed as playable.
Chances were scarce in the first half, O’Sullivan seeing a close-range shot cleared of the line and Louise Quinn poking wide, but a pragmatic recalibration led to one-way traffic at the resumption.
Two interval substitutes, Heather Payne and Jamie Finn, along with Izzy Atkinson introduced just past hour, helped to stretch the limited opposition whose goalkeeper Viona Rexhepi repelled Ireland on several occasions.
“We were told at half-time to step it up and it was relief to get three points,” admitted O’Sullivan.
“The second half was much better. The message was to put the ball in the box and the opportunities would come.”
That they did without Ireland applying the necessary finish.
Two centre-backs, Caitlin Hayes and Quinn, acted in tandem to break away from a congested defence, only for the latter’s low shot to be blocked by Rexhepi.
Captain Katie McCabe – diverted from the wing to central in the reshuffle - couldn’t add to the hat-trick she nestled in Friday’s 5-1 thumping of the same opposition.
Her free-kick was tame into the wall before she somehow cushioned her header from Atkinson’s left-wing cross over the crossbar.
Atkinson then played a part in the solitary goal, lofting a long ball into the box that O’Sullivan controlled before laying off to Kyra Carusa.
She made her way into the box to complete the exchange, prodding the ball home from close-range for her 20th international goal.
That winner – coupled with the draw between Northern Ireland and Hungary in Belfast – renders the final double-header against those two nations on November 30 and December 5 immaterial.
Thoughts can shift from bleak scenes like northern Albania to attractive matches against the powerhouses of European football at the Aviva Stadium next year.
“Winning this group and getting promotion is huge,” added Gleeson.
“The narrative around this group has been about how weak the opposition are but you still have to come out and do your job.
“And as you’ve seen tonight anything can happen. Football is wild - you can be the top favourite and playing a lower-ranked team and still lose.
“There was high risk in this game due to the conditions. The performance wasn’t what we wanted it to be but we showed real resilience and it took grit to come back out and win it.”
V Rexhepi; A Hilaj, S Maliqi, G Berisha, L Gjini; Q Krasniqi, E Franja, M Doci, Hamidi (M Metalla 63), K Maksuti (K Troka 86); A Tukaj.
C Brosnan; C Hayes, L Quinn, D Caldwell; A Larkin (I Atkinson 63), S Farrelly (J Finn 46), T Toland K McCabe; D O’Sullivan, E McLaughlin (H Payne 46); K Carusa.
Araksya Saribekyan (ARM).
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