'We need a Carla Ward team on the ball and an Irish mentality off it' says Ireland WNT boss
Republic of Ireland head coach Carla Ward greets fans in the stands. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire.
Play-offs hold fond memories for Irish women’s football.
Attention between the generation led by Emma Byrne losing their Euro one in 2008 until Hampden Park in 2022 offered a generational breakthrough.
Amber Barrett and her big toe will be forever renowned for slaying the Scots to end a qualification famine and begin the journey to Australia.
Ireland’s route to the next World Cup, the 2027 version in Brazil, will be shaped by the outcome of another play-off in October.
Whereas the Celtic clash was considered a meeting of similar standard, Ireland are up against it for this one.
Uefa’s preference for established nations dictates nations finishing third in League A can preserve their status by beating a runner-up from League B.
That’s where Ireland find themselves following relegation from League A and failure to bounce straight back.
Denmark, Iceland, Belgium or Austria await in Friday’s draw. Only the latter have not qualified for next month’s Euros. Best case scenario is being paired with Austrians, contrasted with a duel against Denmark.
Granted, they trundle into the playoffs off a 6-1 hammering by a slick Sweden side but this will be their seventh straight Euros, the peak being a runners-up finish in 2017.
Ireland must navigate the playoffs to be among the top 16 European teams competing for World Cup qualification – with it a playoff assured – because they were always playing catch-up since their second game of the campaign resulted in a shock 4-0 defeat to the Slovenians.
“All four teams are tough but I believe that we can go and beat anyone,” stressed Ward about the next competitive step, after a double-header summer friendly against USA.
“Players that have played for me at club and country often laugh at me because I'm somebody that believes that we can do anything if we really want to.”
Despite being 12 places behind Ireland in Fifa’s rankings, the team from the Balkans are a structured unit and prepared for what Ireland produced in both games.
They were entitled to prioritise elevation over defeat when the three minutes of stoppage time elapsed, thrilled to upset the script Uefa favour abiding by.
Saoirse Noonan’s winner on her Cork homecoming registered a fifth victory in six for Ireland but not by sufficient margin to dislodge the table-toppers.
Just under 10,000 were at Pairc Uí Chaoimh to see Noonan add a second international goal to the first she scored in 2021 but Ireland required another three to salvage top spot in a group they were favourites for.
Performances for Ireland have been erratic since Carla Ward’s first window in charge went awry.
Emily Murphy was the gleeful recipient of a present to salvage victory in Turkey on Friday and her goalscoring impact earned a start in Ward’s reshuffled side.
This was Ireland’s turn to bat and clocking up goals rather than runs was their objective.
Defenders were in the thick of the aerial barrage, with Anna Patten first to threaten with a fifth minute poked volley straight into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Abbie Larkin was next to test Zala Mersnik by cutting in from the left and drilling a shot which the stopper stooped low to repel.
Pressure was building and the breakthrough soon arrived after 19 minutes.
When Denise O’Sullivan and Murphy collided in attempting to connect with Katie McCabe’s left-wing cross, it seemed the chance was lost but the latter dashed to retrieve the ball.
Once she prevented it rolling out of play, the ball was teed up for defender Jessie Stapleton to loft a high cross into the box.
Her delivery hung long enough in the air for Noonan to elude her marker and plant a thumping header from 10 yards that flew beyond the reach of Mersnik.
Hordes of green shirts flooded into the final third in the hope of using that opener as a stimulus and while Patten jabbed a volley wide Ireland still had to be wary of the counter.
Lara Prašnikar, who’d scored a brace in Koper, almost exposed Ireland’s high line by nipping in behind but Courtney Brosnan did well to bat her shot away.
It was a similar pattern for the second half with Ireland overloading the wings without peppering the goal.
With a bit more conviction, Ireland might have neared their target. Stapleton’s header from McCabe’s cross five minutes after the interval was more of a glance, as was another from Caitlin Hayes with 17 minutes left.
Murphy’s shot was parried and the introduction of Megan Campbell added the throw-in dimension Ireland have become increasingly dependent on.
Just once did it threaten with a scud towards fellow substitute Marissa Sheva but the goalkeeper smothered well.
Also on towards the end was Louise Quinn for her 122nd cap. The towering centre-back had rescued Ireland in the past, up from the back Shane Duffy-style, but the chase was too steep even for her legendary powers.
Frustration boiled into Patten incurring a booking to rule her out of the play-off, one of five players walking a suspension tightrope, and they will require all their nous to emerge from the two-leg assignment.
“We’ve seen from game one to game six the improvement in our team,” added Ward.
“The way I’d put it is we need a Carla Ward team on the ball and an Irish mentality off the ball.
“If we want to play in an exciting way going forward, and that’s the way I like my teams to play, we have to be better out of possession.
“We are still building. Throughout this campaign, we have had five training sessions with the entire squad so to build the way we are and to finish the way we did against Slovenia.
“I could not ask for more. A couple of more goals yes, but we got to be proud of that performance. That was an Irish performance."
C Brosnan; J Stapleton (M Campbell 62), C Hayes, A Patten; E Murphy, M Connolly, D O’Sullivan, K McCabe, A Larkin (Louise Quinn 80); K Carusa (M Sheva 80), S Noonan (A Barrett 62).
Z Mersnik; K Erzen, L Golob, D Conc, S Agrez; S Makovec, L Prasnikar, K Korosec, S Kolbi, Z Kramzar (M Zver 88); M Sternad (N Kajzba 68).
Miriama Bockova (Slovakia).
9,433.
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