Republic of Ireland WU19s just miss out on qualifying
THE Republic of Ireland Women's Under 19s narrowly missed out on qualifying for the UEFA European Championships despite beating Poland 2-0 today.
A good crowd at Tallaght Stadium cheered on Dave Connell's side as they secured second place in Group 1 thanks to second-half goals from Hayley Nolan and Dearbhaile Beirne.
The margin for qualifying for this summer's finals in Slovakia was so tight that only the group winners and the best runners-up progressed. And for Ireland, that proved to be just out of reach.
Mayo's Rachel Kearns and Jessica Nolan both started against Poland today, the latter finishing the game and the former playing 88 minutes before making way.
A narrow 1-0 loss to Germany ultimately spoiled their dream, but Connell could not find a single fault in the three performances against the Germans, Azerbaijan and Poland.
He said: “It's incredibly difficult to qualify for European finals, as we know from previous experiences, but this group of girls gave it everything and I'm extremely proud of them.
“They performed brilliantly and deserved more, but we can look to the future with a lot of positivity because the girls who leave us are capable of going to a higher level and the next batch of girls coming through are very talented too.
“There was nothing in it in the end. Even when you look at our bench we had players who could easily have stepped in to the team. This is a special group of players and they have been brilliant since the first day that they came in with us.”
Ireland bossed possession, created the majority of goalscoring opportunities, and looked the more likely to claim the three points from early on. So it was hardly surprising when they took the lead through Hayley Nolan.
For the second successive game the Kildare native showed incredible composure to slot in a penalty kick after Rachel Kearns had been fouled inside the area on 49 minutes.
Beirne followed up that goal with a neat close-range finish on 87 minutes to cap off a laudable performance and a second elite phase win for Ireland this week.