Following their 3-0 win over Estonia on Wednesday, Dave Connell's side have produced another impressive display to secure the points with goals from Kate Mooney, Tiegan Ruddy, Orla Casey and Lauren O'Callaghan.
It was another dominant display from Ireland as Latvia only managed one shot throughout the contest and it was just before the half-hour when Ireland went ahead. Shelbourne's Kate Mooney turned in off the left and from 20-yards out, she found the top corner with a fantastic right-footed effort.
Latvia somehow held out until the break but the dominance continued in the second-half and the goals soon followed. First, in the 51st minute, Wexford Youths' Orla Casey benefitted from a goal-mouth scramble as Latvia failed to clear a corner and from just inside the area, Casey smashed the ball home.
Nine minutes later, Tiegan Ruddy, who captained the Women's Under-17s at the European Championships in May, scored her first goal at WU19 level. The Shelbourne defender saw a free-kick come off the bar just moments before but when she was handed another free-kick opportunity from 25 yards, she made no mistake having set her sights in the 60th minute.
Ireland rounded off the scoring seven minutes from time as Peamount United defender Lauren O'Callaghan benefited from another goal-mouth scramble to tuck the ball home and seal an impressive victory.
Ireland now face the Netherlands in their final qualifying group game, having already sealed their elite round berth, on Tuesday, October 24th with kick-off at 5pm (6pm local time).
Republic of Ireland WU19s manager Dave Connell said: "It's another really impressive and dominant display from the team. They controlled the game from start to finish and whilst, once again, we could have scored a few more, to have qualified with a game remaining is great.
"We've also been able to keep another clean sheet which is great for the team to take forward into Tuesday's game but also the elite round. There have been a number of impressive performers in the team with the likes of Tiegan Ruddy, Naoisha McAloon, Niamh Farrelly and Orla Casey.
"Having signed for Galway this season, I think Chloe Singleton has been really impressive and steady in everything she has done. There are plenty of great signs around the entire squad and confidence will be high going into the game on Tuesday.
"It will be a difficult game. Netherlands are a good, technical side who get forward in numbers but at the same time, we're unbeaten and they never really like playing against us so we'll be confident and looking to stay unbeaten."
Team
Republic of Ireland: McAloon (GK), O'Callaghan, Farrelly, Doyle, Singleton (O'Gorman 69), Ruddy, Noonan, Mooney, Reybet-Degat (Craven 46), Burke, McManus (Casey 46). |
