Republic of Ireland 1-0 Norway
The Republic of Ireland women’s under 17 side secured their place amongst the top ten teams in Europe with a 1-0 victory against Norway in the UEFA Women’s Under 17 championship, elite qualifying phase in France today. Noel King’s side defeated Norway courtesy of a superb Amy Ryan strike just before half time.
With gale force winds playing a huge part in the final game of the tournament, the Irish came out of the blocks very quickly and the Stella Maris starlet, Amy Ryan had the ball in the net with just one minute on the clock. As the Irish celebrated their tremendous start, the assistant referee adjudged that Ryan was in an offside position before she scored.
The Irish did take the lead after 30 minutes, Piltown’s Karen Duggan and Julie Ann Russell linked up in the midfield and provided a cutting through-ball to Ryan who rounded her marker and slotted the ball past the keeper in a superb team move.
The Irish went into the second half playing against a strong wind but they held on for their first win in the elite qualifying phase of the Women’s Under 17 Championship.
Goalkeeper, Sinead Crotty came to Ireland’s rescue a number of times as Norway scrambled to get back into the game. She rounded off a fine performance as she made a tremendous catch from a corner in the dying minutes which was to be Norway’s last attack of the game.
Irish manager, Noel King was thrilled with his sides performance which clinched a place in Europe’s top ten with today’s other results going their way, “Overall, I think we thoroughly deserved this victory, maybe we should have been 3-0 up at half time but we held on and secured the win. Obviously, we would have liked to qualify for this years finals but we have a very young and talented squad with six players still eligible for the tournament next year and this experience will be invaluable to them,” said King.
Republic of Ireland
Sinead Crotty - CFC United (USA)
Anna McCormack - Cam Celtic
Emer Flatley - Salthill Devon
Emily Hanney - Stella Maris
Karen Duggan – Piltown
Amy Ryan - Stella Maris
Julie Ann Russell - Salthill Devon
Gillian McDonnell - Dundalk City WFC
Maria Harrington - Westport Utd
Lucy Anne Hannon - Salthill Devon FC
Zoe Murphy - Ballincollig FC
Substitutes
Niamh Reid Burke – Raheny
Zoe Doherty – Carndonagh
Megan Campbell – Moneymore
Tanya Kennedy - Finn Valley
Dora Gorman - Salthill Devons
Maria Delahunty - Benfica
Eilish Ward - Finn Valley |
