Ireland v Wales Talking points: Another chance to inspire next ...
Missed opportunity
The Republic of Ireland’s Women’s National Team may never again suffer heartbreak like they did when they were beaten 1-0 by Ukraine, which all but ended their hopes of reaching Euro 2022. But this comes close.
A horrendous own goal and a missed penalty by Katie McCabe saw Ireland fall to a devastating defeat that night in Kiev over four years ago.
But they learned from that loss and used that experience to reach the World Cup in 2023 to finally reach a first major tournament and banish those demons.
The aim was to now reach a first European Championship and after a 1-1 draw in Wales, all that was needed was a victory at a packed Aviva Stadium.
But it wasn’t to be and another opportunity to inspire the next generation on a huge stage has been squandered.
Goodnight, Eileen
Eileen Gleeson admitted recently that she wanted to continue as head coach no matter what happened in these Euro 2025 qualifiers against Wales.
Her current deal in charge of the Girls in Green was to run until the end of their Euros campaign, which sadly came to an abrupt conclusion on Tuesday night.
Gleeson also admitted that no talks with the FAI had been held over an extension with the Welsh clashes taking her sole focus.
"(FAI chief football officer) Marc Canham and I speak all the time, we have a really positive relationship,” she said.
“There's been no discussions around a contract, I want to keep all focus… I don’t have the capacity to focus on anything else, only Wales.
"Post the games, then we’ll be able to talk about conversations around that.”
But given the fact that she has now failed in her primary objective of getting Ireland to the Euros, maybe those talks shouldn’t go the way she hopes.
VAR Farce?
It didn’t seem like it was working initially but, in the end, there can’t be too many complaints about the decision that VAR reached which ultimately proved decisive.
The way VAR is used in the sport can been questioned, as can the handball rule, but in its current guise, it’s no surprise Anna Patten was punished at the beginning of the second half and Wales took full advantage by converting the penalty.
The biggest issue on the night was that Ireland didn’t respond to the setback until the closing stages and by then they were 2-0 down having been caught out on the break.
