Ireland's starting XI. Sportsfile Sportsfile

Ireland 0-1 France

IRELAND HAVE BEEN narrowly beaten in their opening match of the Uefa Women’s U17 Championship in Iceland.

Dave Connell’s girls lost out 1-0 to France, with midfielder Emelyne Laurent heading home after full-back Agathe Ollivier had delivered a free-kick into the box 15 minutes from the final whistle.

“We’re disappointed with the result. I thought the performance was very hardworking and there were some very good individual performances. As a team, we could do a bit better,” Connell told the FAI after the final whistle.

We’re not out of it. We’ll dust ourselves down, get the girls motivated, regroup and try to get a good result on Thursday (against Switzerland) and put ourselves back in the mix.”

Next up for Ireland is a meeting with Switzerland in Reykjavik on Thursday before their final Group B game against Norway on Sunday.

IRELAND: McQuillan, Higgins (McKevitt 41′), Finn (c), Noonan, Nolan (Prior 53′), Daly, McLaughlin, Meaney, Donnolly, Moloney, Ryan-Doyle (Payne 70′).

FRANCE: Lebastard, Ollivier, Galera, Piga (c), Laplacette, Ould Braham (Bodain 70′), Boutaleb (Fercocq 56′), Laurent, Gavory, Katoto, Laurier (Ringenbach 48′).

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