The Republic of Ireland womens U19 side inflicted a 7-0 defeat on the Faroe Islands to secure their place in the UEFA Championship, elite qualifying phase next spring. The result ensures that the Republic of Ireland boss, Susan Ronan maintains her impressive record of advancing to the elite phase of the competition for the ninth time in ten years.
Extraordinarily, all seven goals were notched up by different scorers; Rebecca Walsh (Salthill Devon), Ciara Grant (Kilmacrennan), Julieanne Russell (Salthill Devon), Shelby Murphy (Slammers FC), Ealish Murray (St. Catherines), Michelle O Reilly (Stella Maris) and Lillie Billson (Arsenal).
Republic of Ireland manager, Susan Ronan lauded her side following the victory, "I am absolutely thrilled with the teams performance against the Faroe Islands. While I felt we controlled the game for the full 90 minutes and could have scored more, the Faroe Islands were a tough opponent but the girls really dug deep and put in the performance that we knew they were capable of. It is impossible to single out any player in todays victory, the fact that seven different players got on the score sheet today signifies that the team really worked for each other and it leaves me with a massive selection headache for Thursdays game against Finland."
"While we have already qualified for the elite qualifying phase, we will be eager to finish the group as winners with a chance of progressing as top seeds for the next phase to avoid the likes of Germany and France. That being said, the last two years we finished as first phase winners, we were knocked out in the elite phase while the second placed teams from the first phase actually qualified for the finals," added Ronan.
The Republic of Ireland will now face Finland at the Samobor Sports Center in Croatia next Thursday in the final game of the group. The winners of that match will advance to the elite qualifying phase as group winners and possible top seeds as Finland have also defeated the Faroe Islands (1-0) and Croatia (1-2) in group 1.
Republic of Ireland
Aisling Dyer, Rebecca Walsh, Zoe Murphy, Ciara Grant, Karen Duggan, Eilish Ward, Zoe Doherty, Julieanne Russell, Ealish Murray, Shelby Murphy, Niamh Kearney.
Substitutes: Kiev Dollard, Niamh Nolan, Megan Campbell, Stephanie Murphy (on for Ciara Grant, 68 mins), Nicole Cronin, Lillie Billson (on for Ealish Murray, 70 mins), Michelle O Reilly (on for Zoe Doherty, 45 mins)
UEFA Womens U19 Championship, first qualifying phase:
19 September 2009
Republic of Ireland 3-0 Croatia
Sports Centre, Samobor (CRO)
21 September 2009
Republic of Ireland 7-0 Faroe Islands
SRC Velika Gorika, Velika Gorica (CRO)
24 September 2009
Republic of Ireland v Finland
Kick-off: 4.30 (local time)
Sports Centre, Samobor (CRO). |
