“A WIN, SOME good goals and a nice halfway point going into Tuesday.”
Eileen Gleeson’s immediate reaction after Ireland’s 6-0 Euro 2025 play-off first leg win over Georgia.
Katie McCabe (two), Kyra Carusa, Jessie Stapleton, Marissa Sheva and Aoife Mannion were on target in Tbilisi as the Girls In Green took one step closer to their first-ever European Championships.
Tuesday’s return leg at Tallaght Stadium will be but a formality, the focus thereafter turning to another play-off double-header against Wales or Slovakia. The winner of that qualifies for next summer’s finals tournament in Switzerland.
A comprehensive win was expected here. Ireland hammered Georgia 11-0 and 9-0 in 2023 World Cup qualifying, while they sit 94 places higher in the Fifa World Rankings. The Eastern European minnows kept them out until a 36th-minute McCabe penalty, but Ireland hit five goals in an improved second half.
“I wasn’t getting concerned,” Gleeson reflected on the opening exchanges. “We would have liked an early goal, of course, but you just have to be patient in these games and you have to trust that we can score.
“It is not concern, you just have to trust that it will come and we knew in the second half, they would get more tired and we would move the ball quicker, we will tire them out again and create more opportunities for ourselves.”
“I think with these games you can expect a level of frustration,” she continued.
“You know you’re going to play against a low block with everybody behind the ball. We would have liked a bit of a quicker speed of play from ourselves, some more balls into the box. I think we kept possession across the backline a bit too much and we wanted those balls to go forward.
“In terms of them time-wasting, that carried through throughout the game — again, probably something you can expect when you’re in these games. We focus on ourselves. In the first half we would have liked a quicker speed of play at times and more early deliveries into the box. We wanted dribblers and one v ones, through balls, get the ball into the box more and quicker and I think that was all better in the second half.”
Gleeson lauded Player of the Match Abbie Larkin, along with first-time goalscorers Stapleton, Mannion and the returning heva.
She also hailed the “flexibility” and squad depth, with the second-half switch of McCabe and Julie-Anne Russell, and bench press, key.
The head coach confirmed Russell’s late withdrawal was precautionary after a bang on the nose, and the Galway United star should be available for Tuesday’s return leg.
Tonight’s result offers Ireland breathing space, but Gleeson wants more as she targets another professional performance.
“I don’t think we’ll relax. We’ll aim to definitely not be complacent and make sure we do a good job on Tuesday, but it opens up opportunities. The aim is to win the game again, with a good performance but it does open up opportunities to see some of the younger, less experienced players and give them some minutes and experience.”
On Slovakia’s surprise 2-1 win over Wales, she added: “Always expected it to be a tight game, Slovakia are tough, so it will be interesting to see what happens in second leg.”
