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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Carla Ward hoping Páirc power can inspire Girls in Green
The Republic of Ireland need to be almost perfect tomorrow night if they're to beat a strong Slovenia side by four clear goals at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and win their Nations League group, but boss Carla Ward is keeping the faith. Ireland were run ragged when the teams met in Koper back in February, deservedly losing 4-0 to give Ward a serious reality check in what was just her second game at the helm. The Girls in Green have reeled off three wins on the bounce since that loss, and can still top Group 2 to earn promotion back to League A. However they know this will not be easy. "There's so many different permutations," Ward told the media in Cork on Monday. "But, yeah, we've whittled it down. We need to win by four clear goals, which sets it up for an exciting game, an exciting evening. "We know where we need to tidy up. We've got an ambitious group of players, players that constantly want to be better, so those conversations become easy because they answer the questions for you." Slovenia manager Sasa Kolman had Ward's number three months ago. His team destroyed Ireland on the break, and comfortably snuffed out attacks that were too slow, too predictable. Ward bristled when reminded that Kolman had claimed he knew how she'd set her team up and even anticipated the changes she'd make mid-game. "I mean, it's not hard to look at a Carla Ward team over the last eight years and work out how I like to play the game," she said. "It just shows that he's probably had a look at my career, which I can take a little bit of confidence from." The squad is relatively fit and healthy. Lucy Quinn has a bug and is being monitored, while Aoife Mannion is a slight doubt after being withdrawn at half-time against Turkey on Friday. Mannion - so unlucky with injuries over the years - has to manage her work load carfefully. Katie McCabe is most certainly good to go. The indefatigable skipper has enjoyed a remarkable week. Having helped Arsenal to win the Champions League, she arrived into international camp in Istanbul just two days before the Turkish clash and delivered a player-of-the-match performance. Now she's targeting one more big push before heading for a well-earned summer holiday. "That would be nice, wouldn't it? To end the season like that," smiled the 29-year-old. "(The loss in Slovenia) was tough for us to take. We were coming off the back of the Wales defeat. It was our first camp under Carla and the new management. So there was lots of learnings to be took from the game, as bad as it was, and the result obviously reflected that. "I think over the last couple of games we've grown and we've gotten better. We're not where we want to be but it's a process that we have to kind of go through and I know, everyone knows, the calibre of players who've retired as well. That's not easy. It is a little bit of a transition, but it's more opportunity for players to step up and really stake their claim in the team." Ireland have fond memories of Cork. It's almost a year since they swept past France 3-1 on Leeside. Over 18,000 turned up for that one, and while it's unlikely we'll see that attendance tomorrow, McCabe insisted that home support can play a big part. "For us as players that France game will stick with us for a long time," McCabe added. "It was an amazing crowd, a fantastic day and a remarkable result against one of the best teams in the world. I've taken a walk into town over the last day or two and I can feel the support already, when you're walking by shops and pubs on the Bank Holiday weekend and everyone's kind of cheering us on. We feel that support already. "We hope the fans come in in their numbers tomorrow evening and really help us get us over the line." Ward echoed those sentiments as she sent out a rallying cry: "I've heard an awful lot about the crowd here. I've heard an awful lot about the good times that last year of being here. "Look, we'll be ready. We know what we have to do."
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Ireland dealt double injury issue for Nations League decider at Páirc Uí Chaoimh
Lucy Quinn and Aoife Mannion have emerged as doubts for Ireland's Nations League finale against Slovenia at Páirc Uí Chaoimh tomorrow evening. The duo have started all five games under new manager Carla Ward. However, Quinn has been struck down by an illness, while Mannion is suffering from a quad issue after a long season. 'She's a doubt, but not a major doubt,' Ward said of Mannion. 'It's an overload more than anything. She's finished the season, gone straight out to Portugal to play in the Sevens, and it's managing her load. 'We're hopeful that she'll be fit. We'll see today how she gets on, but she's massively important for what we want to do and the way that we want to play.' Read More Caoimhín Kelleher closing in on move to Brentford from Liverpool The outlook for Quinn appears more pessimistic. 'Maybe less (hopeful),' said Ward. 'Just because she's had a bug for a couple of days, and we all know how that feels coming on the back of that. 'We'll see. She's in good hands with the medical team. We'll have a look at her tonight and tomorrow and see how she feels.' Ireland require a four-goal win if they are to overhaul Slovenia for League A promotion. That's a consequence of the 4-0 drubbing they took in Ward's second game in charge, back in February. Solvenian manager Saša Kolman trumpeted his Jim McGuinness-inspired 'tactical win' for outfoxing Ward. She hit back: 'It's not hard to look at a Carla Ward team over the last eight years and work out how I like to play the game. 'He can comment all he likes. It just shows that he's probably had a look at my career, which I can take a little bit of confidence from.' Katie McCabe during a Republic of Ireland women's training session at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile. Ward wouldn't be drawn on any plans to mix things up. 'There's so many different permutations, but we've whittled it down. We need to win by four clear goals, which sets it up for an exciting evening. 'I've heard an awful lot about the crowd here. I've heard an awful lot about the good times being here. We'll be ready. We know what we have to do. We're going to have to be aggressive but also secure at the same time.' Captain Katie McCabe feels the team must be 'miles better' than their 2-1 win in Turkey on Friday. But the need for goals doesn't change the approach too much. 'If we don't score the first ,one you can forget about the fourth,' she said. 'We just have to be fully concentrated on how we're setting up the game plan and executing it as best as possible. 'For us, we know we can score goals in a lot of different ways. But if we want to top this group, we have to be miles better than we were on Friday night, all over the pitch.'
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- General
- Irish Times
Ireland in need of a goal glut against Slovenia to top Nations League group
While they might have travelled to Istanbul last week with the hope of a Nations League victory big enough to eat into group leaders Slovenia's goal-difference advantage, in the end Carla Ward's Republic of Ireland players were just relieved to secure a narrow win . Not for the first time in this group, they had a tough day at the office. Ireland were indebted to a Turkish own goal and Emily Murphy's 89th-minute winner. It kept alive their hopes of topping the group and earning automatic promotion back to League A. But – and it's a huge 'but' – they must beat Slovenia by five goals in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Tuesday evening if they are to overtake them on goal difference. Considering they lost 4-0 to the same opposition in February , that's quite the ask. 'That's character for you,' said Ward after her team recovered from conceding an early second-half goal against Turkey. 'That's the Irish mentality, never rolling over.' They'll need more than big hearts against a Slovenia side that is in pinch-me territory. READ MORE 'We have exceeded our goals,' said their goalkeeper, Zala Mersnik, after last Friday's 2-0 victory against Greece made it five wins out of five in the group. 'Initially, all we wanted was to stay in League B, but our appetites have grown in the meantime.' A year ago, they were in the third tier of the competition, mixing it with nations ranked outside the world's top 100. Since winning promotion, they have cruised through their League B campaign, conceding just one goal in their five games. If they can avoid a heavy defeat in Cork, they'll be playing in League A next time around. Manager Sasa Kolman has bigger ambitions than avoiding defeat. 'We are going to Cork to win, we do not know how to think any other way,' he said on Friday. If Ireland are to pull it off, they will, as Katie McCabe put it after the Turkey game, 'have to be miles better' against Slovenia. 'If we want to be pushing for League A, we can't be conceding goals like that,' she said of Kader Hancar's 49th-minute goal. 'We gave them too much space, we need to take more care with the ball.' 'We need a massive improvement if we are going to beat Slovenia. It's a tough ask. They have played brilliantly for the whole Nations League campaign, but I've got belief in us. We can score goals from different phases of play. We can't rush it; we have to be patient. We need to be at our absolute best.' [ Katie McCabe's story: How gifted Dubliner reached top level of European soccer Opens in new window ] The win in Turkey did at least guarantee Ireland, at worst, the runners-up spot in the group, which would put them in to a two-leg promotion playoff in October against a third-placed team in League A. So there's nothing to lose in this final game. They might as well go for it. Ward has some big selection decisions to make if that goal glut is to be achieved. She won't need to be reminded that when she played an attacking 4-4-2 formation in Koper in February, Slovenia were 3-0 up by half-time. Ruesha Littlejohn, Kyra Carusa and Murphy will be among those pushing for a start, while the manager may need to rejig her defence if Aoife Mannion doesn't recover from the knock that saw her go off at half-time in Istanbul.
RTÉ News
3 days ago
- Sport
- RTÉ News
'That's an Irish mentality' - Carla Ward hails spirit in Turkey
Carla Ward believes "an Irish mentality" helped her side turn things around against Turkey and keep their Nations League promotion hopes alive. One down heading into the 80th minute, a Busem Seker OG and an excellent Emily Murphy volley got the Republic of Ireland out of Istanbul with a precious 2-1 victory. They finish their campaign with a clash against unbeaten Slovenia at Páirc Ui Chaoimh on Tuesday. The Girls in Green were hammered 4-0 in Koper, so they must beat the Slovenians by five goals or more to top the group and gain promotion to League A. If they don't, Ireland will head for the two-legged promotion/relegation play-offs in the autumn, when they'll be pitted against one of the third-placed League A sides. "That's character, that's character for you," Ward told RTÉ Sport when reflecting on Friday's win. "That's an Irish mentality... never rolling over. Even when we went 1-0 down - which we're disappointed with the goal - the reaction after that, the togetherness, the attitdue to go and win tackles, close gaps, making sure we were front footed is something we can walk away and be proud of. "I actually think winning it like that at the death puts us in a good position for Tuesday." Any late win is a sweet one, but overall this was not a strong Irish display. They looked short of ideas against well organised, physical opponents, delivering another under-par first-half showing - something that's become a bad habit over the last few matches. "It's something we've got to keep addressing," Ward said. "We've got to keep trying to work out why, and it's something we spoke about before the game, 'let's not wait till half-time to adjust and go after things, we have to start brighter'. "We can't wait for 45 minutes against Slovenia to be at them. There's going to be a lot of looking at that. We've got to dissect it, we've got to get into it, we'll go and have some honest conversations about how we start bright. "But listen this group's hungry. They don't want to roll over, they want to go. We've got a young and hungry squad that want to all play. "We saw that tonight with some changes. We need to be way better come Tuesday. There'll be a few things we need to tweak again, but the most important thing is we got the three points." Slovenia have won all five of their games so far and utterly dismantled Ireland back in February. Managed by Sasa Kolman, who counts Donegal boss Jim McGuinness as mentor, they are unquestionaly a coming team. To beat them by any scoreline will require a top performance . To beat them by five would be a minor miracle. But Ward insists her players will keep the faith and give everything to pull off what would be a remarkable result. "We've lost one game, which we know hurt us," she added. "We walked away with a win tonight, let's remember that. We've put ourselves in a position were we can go on Tuesday and try and finish top. If we don't, then we've put oursleves in a position now where we get a second bite of the cherry in (the play-offs in) October. "We have to win 5-0, which is not easy against any team now because women's football is improving in every country as you can see in all the Nations Leagues, A, B and C. So it's going to be tough. "One thing we will do is go out there with an attitude, a mindset and a belief that anything is possible. The Irish love that. I love that. It's why I took the job. We'll certainly give it absolutely everything. "I've heard an awful lot about Cork, I've heard about the noise down there. We're going to need everyone. We're going to need every single bit of Irish noise and blood because we're going to give everything, and we need the fans to back us, we need the fans to be there, loud.
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Murphy 'over the moon' with Republic of Ireland winner
Republic of Ireland forward Emily Murphy said you "dream" of goals like her late winner over Turkey after her first international goal secured a dramatic comeback victory as the race for top spot in Group B2 goes down to the final was not going according to plan for Carla Ward's side, who needed three points to keep the pressure on group leaders Slovenia, with Kader Hancar's strike giving Turkey the lead early in the first an own goal from Busem Seker with 10 minutes to go and a composed finish from Murphy in the 89th minute meant that the away side were the victors."I am over the moon with the goal," Murphy told RTE."To be honest, I don't quite remember it [the goal], I just remember it coming to me and knowing I had a lot more time than I thought."The past version of myself would have hit it into Row Z, but I took a breath and composed myself and hit it as hard as I could."You dream of the game winners, but ultimately we should have been better and didn't want it to get to that point."Fellow substitute Megan Campbell's throw-in led to the leveller for the Republic of Ireland with Murphy adding that she was proud that 'everyone that came on made an impact'."There is a reason you have substitutes. We need those game changers, and you might need fresh legs or tactics," the Newcastle United striker continued."Thankfully the right decisions were made and everyone who came on made an impact."The result means that the Republic of Ireland have guaranteed second position in Group B2, but they can still clinch top spot on Tuesday night when they welcome Slovenia to Pairc Ui Slovenians come to Cork unbeaten so far in the group and the home side will have to win by at least a five-goal margin after Slovenia were 4-0 victors in the reverse fixture in February.
