Republic of Ireland 2-1 Hungary
Debut for Emma Mullin and Ruesha Littlejohn
Áine O'Gorman and Julie-Ann Russell combined on Wednesday against Hungary to ensure the Republic of Ireland Women concluded their Algarve Cup tournament with a morale-boosting victory.
Ireland Head Coach Sue Ronan used the four games over the event to try out new players and work on a variety of systems with a view to the upcoming European Championship qualifier against Scotland in Edinburgh on April 5.
Twenty-five players in total were used during the week and, in this play-off, Ireland did enough to defeat the side that inflicted an opening day loss on them seven days earlier.
A strong start today by the Irish in Faro yielded a goal within 18 minutes. Julie-Ann Russell did the spadework by racing down the left and curling a teasing cross to the back post where O'Gorman arrived into the six-yard box with perfect timing to slide the ball home.
Emma Mullin of Castlebar Celtic, on her senior debut, was near to scoring in the first half also but her low drive zipped the wrong side of the post.
Ireland maintained their pressure in the second half and deservedly grabbed a second goal to extend the advantage.
The 53th minutes strike was a mirror image of the first in its creation, with O'Gorman picking out Russell in the centre for a close-range finish.
Hungary made it a nervous last thirty minutes for the Irish when reducing the deficit with a long-range shot on the hour that beat Emma Byrne.
But Sue Ronan's side kept their composure to close out the win, a decent result to build on for the upcoming qualifier.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: E. Byrne (Arsenal); S. Perry (Chelsea), L. Quinn (Peamount United), M. Campbell (Peamount United), Y. Tracy (Arsenal); A. O'Gorman (Peamount United), N. Fahey (Arsenal), M. Curtin (Cork); R. Littlejohn (Liverpool FC), E. Mullin (Castlebar Celtic), JA Russell (Doncaster Belles).
Substitutions: C. Grant (Arsenal) for Curtin (46 mins), S. Smyth (Amazon Grimstad FK) for Quinn (60 mins), F. O'Sullivan (Soyaux ASJ) for Mullin, O'Brien (Chicago Red Eleven) for Russell, D. O'Sullivan (Cork) for Littlejohn (all 65 mins). |
