Ireland lead Poland but booking rules Denise O'Sullivan out of upcoming Pairc Uí Chaoimh clash
GOAL-LAND: Marissa Sheva celebrates with team-mates after scoring the opener. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
The two nations vying for the favourable third spot in the World Cup qualifying group are poles apart at half-time of Saturday afternoon’s rematch.
After deservedly prevailing 3-2 in Tuesday’s first game, Ireland have the interval lead courtesy of Marissa Sheva’s close-range finish on 42 minutes.
Her goal created a wave of noise across the 51,000-capacity Lansdowne Road, which looks slightly under half full in the Spring sunshine.
Not the swashbuckling display from Gdansk that yielded two first half goals but Ireland have shaded the chance count without enjoying the control Card Ward claimed her team exerted in four days ago.
US-born midfielder Sheva fired in what transpired to be the winner on Tuesday and this was a different finish, ghosting in behind Wiktoria Zieniewicz to slide in and sweep home Kyra Carusa’s inviting low cross.
Emily Murphy had earlier rattled the Poland crossbar but the visiting superstar, Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor, also went close at the other end by flashing a 14th minute shot on the turn wide of the near post.
Unfortunately for Ireland, a harsh booking for Denise O’Sullivan rules the Cork native out of the next game, the visit of Netherlands to Pairc Uí Chaoimh on June 5.
Similar to Tuesday’s booking, this was dished out following a midfield tussle that looked fair and certainly beneath the threshold for a caution.
France host Netherlands in Auxerre later at 8.10pm, just days after the Dutch won the first meeting 2-1 to take control of the sole automatic place on offer from the pool into next year’s World Cup in Brazil.
C Brosnan; A Patten, C Hayes, C Mustaki; A Mannion, M Connolly, D O’Sullivan, K McCabe; M Sheva, E Murphy; K Carusa.
K Szemik; W Zieniewicz, O Wos, P Dudek, M Wiankowska; E Kamczyk, T Pawollek, A Achcinska; P Tomasiak, E Pajor, N Krezyman.
Aleksandra Česen (SVN)
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