Gleeson praises ability to adapt to horrific Albanian conditions 

ALL SMILES: Katie McCabe, left, Republic of Ireland interim head coach Eileen Gleeson and Denise O'Sullivan celebrate after the UEFA Women's Nations League B match. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Goal number 20 in the illustrious international career of Denise O’Sullivan wasn’t her most sublime but regained Ireland’s status as a top-tier nation.

European Championship qualification is the objective for an Ireland squad that broke their tournament duck by reaching the World Cup in the summer and this Nations League campaign has created a gateway to Switzerland in 2025.

Four wins from four reads the table of Ireland’s group – and a favour by their friends in the north later by equalising against Hungary in Belfast seals top spot with two games to spare.

O’Sullivan will be enjoying more appropriate company next year.

UEFA decided to directly connect progress in the Nations League with a passage to Euro qualification, meaning a top-two finish in next year’s League A group will guarantee a Euros spot.

They might need to navigate a few scruffy results along the path but nothing could compare with the conditions they overcame in Shkodër to edge past Albania in their toughest test of the four.

It wasn’t so much the stubbornness of the group’s lowest seeds that challenged them but the flood plain that the pitch morphed into when a thunderstorm engulfed the surface with rain.

A 90-minute game extended to three hours due to the rain delay of similar duration.

O’Sullivan avoided their promotion wait prolonging into the final double-header, at home to Hungary on November 30 and Northern Ireland up the M1 five days later, by ghosting into the box to stab Kyra Carusa’s cross home.

“Once that torrential rain came, the pitch was kind of unplayable,” said O’Sullivan. “The ball was getting stuck under my feet in a monsoon of puddles.

“I’d had a few chances so I was hoping the goal would come.

“Heather Payne, Jamie Finn and Izzy Atkinson all made an impact when they came on as substitutes. We were told during the long break to put the ball into the box and that's what we did. We kept up the pressure and ended up getting the goal. It was a great cross from Kyra.” 

Caretaker manager Eileen Gleeson was just glad to fly home – as scheduled tomorrow – with another win secured.

“It was a chaotic night with the pitch and the weather and the delay, so credit to the girls that they were able to adapt to that and still come away with three points,” she told RTÉ.

"We wouldn't put it down as a good performance. It was grit and about keeping going until the end. Nobody here thinks it was a good performance or would even pretend to think so. 

"There are things we can work on and reinforce but we got the three points.”