Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe believes the "football gods redeemed themselves" after Alex Greenwood missed a penalty to put the Lionesses three goals clear in the first half of their Euro 2025 qualifier.
England went ahead with just 11 minutes gone after Lauren James pounced quickly in the area to register her seventh goal for the Lionesses. Greenwood then doubled the visitors' advantage from the spot five minutes later after Ruesha Little-John was adjudged to have handled Jess Park's shot in the box.
And the sense of suffering looked destined to be exacerbated as England were awarded another penalty for a handball infraction from the hosts, this time Louise Quinn deemed to have handled Alessia Russo's close-range effort.
Despite protestation from the Irish players, the Euro 2025 qualifiers do not utilise VAR technology and Greenwood stepped up to convert. But the Manchester City defender saw her shot careen off the inside of the post and rattle out of play to the delight of the baying home crowd. And McCabe believes the missed effort restored a sense of justice in the contest.
"There's not much you can do, Louise was trying to balance herself and it's come off her body," McCabe told ITV after England's 2-0 win. It's that handball rule. I think the football gods redeemed themselves when it came off the post but it's the referee's decision in the end."
The missed spot-kick proved to be a lifeline for the Republic of Ireland, who rallied after failing to register a single shot at goal until the 84th minute to produce a dramatic and frenetic finale which led to five shots on Hannah Hampton's goal, three of which required the Chelsea keeper's intervention.
Indeed, the Republic of Ireland showed a spirit and tenacity in the final throes that looked to rattle the visitors. And McCabe underlined the positives as she considered the wider picture of the campaign, which sees Ireland sitting bottom of a difficult qualifying group as England lift themselves to second behind France.
"There’s four games left, we know we have quality and strengths. We saw that at the end of the game. We had chances," McCabe said. "England showed their quality and their experience. They tried to run the time down which I was surprised by coming from an England team."
McCabe added: "First half we were too passive and gave them too much space in central areas. We looked at that at half-time, we needed to push on and I’m proud of how we applied ourselves in the second half... We’ll be reviewing post-games and see where we can do better. Going forward, need to do better in transitions, be better on the ball and be more dangerous going forward."
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