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Niamh Fahey in action against Dรณra Marรญa Lรกrusdรณttir in the second leg. Golli/Kjartan/INPHO

Frozen pitch, familiar faces, trip to Iceland - The last time Ireland faced a play-off

Euro 2009 is the closest the Girls In Green have ever come to reaching a major tournament.

ONE HEADLINE SAID it all: Irish dreams of Euro finals frozen out.

The closest the Republic of Ireland womenโ€™s national team have ever come to reaching a major tournament at senior level was the 2009 European Championships.

Vera Pauwโ€™s side are within touching distance of play-offs as they face into a decisive World Cup qualification double-header against Finland and Slovakia over the next 10 days or so, a win against the Finns at Tallaght Stadium on Thursday would guarantee their progression.

2008 was the only time Ireland ever before contested a play-off for a big time international tournament.

Noel King the then-manager and Iceland, another Scandinavian opponent, the challengers. Three members of the current squad โ€” Niamh Fahey, รine Oโ€™Gorman and Louise Quinn โ€” were involved, along with the likes of Stephanie Roche, Emma Byrne and Olivia Oโ€™Toole.

Ireland qualified for the Euro 2009 play-offs after finishing third in their group behind Italy and favourites Sweden โ€” the runaway winners of Irelandโ€™s World Cup qualifying pool 14 years later โ€” with four wins recorded against Hungary and Romania.

When the draw was made, Katie Taylor was the face of RTร‰โ€™s article, but the legendary Irish sporting figure was absent from the final play-off squad. Boxing soon consumed her sporting focus, a glittering career in the ring has since unfolded.

Screen Shot 2022-08-27 at 12.25.17 RTร‰ Sport. RTร‰ Sport.

Iceland were 18th in the Fifa world rankings at the time, with Ireland 28th. (Pauwโ€™s side are now 26th, their highest-ever ranking achieved this summer.)

Richmond Park hosted the first leg, which was billed โ€œthe biggest occasion for womenโ€™s football in the associationโ€™s historyโ€ by The Irish Examiner.

โ€œI would appeal to everyone in the football family to come along and support us,โ€ King said beforehand, urging an increase on the previous attendance of 1800 at the Carlisle Grounds. (Adult tickets were โ‚ฌ10, the same as Thursdayโ€™s, with U16s free, compared to โ‚ฌ5 now.)

Screen Shot 2022-08-27 at 14.34.04 The Irish Examiner. The Irish Examiner.

โ€œThis is obviously a massive occasion for the womenโ€™s game but also for Irish football as a whole. There has not been a more important play-off match for this country since Mick McCarthy led Ireland to the World Cup 2002 play-off against Iran to put us through to the finals in Japan/South Korea.โ€

On potentially qualifying for the finals, the now-Shelbourne boss added: โ€œIt would be a significant achievement for Ireland and a highlight in the playersโ€™ careers as we would be up against the best players, all full-time professionals, and all of the matches will be screened live on TV for one of the biggest sporting events in Europe in 2009.โ€

Just 25 seconds in at Inchicore, those hopes appeared to go up in smoke. Holmfridur Magnusdottir smashed home from eight yards, after Dรณra Marรญa Lรกrusdรณttir caught Ireland on the hop down the right and delivered a brilliant low cross.

Ireland settled, slowly but surely, creating some chances of their own, but were let off as the visitors threatened time and time again. Stephanie Curtis proved the Girls In Greenโ€™s goal-scoring hero when her 63rd minute strikeโ€“ with great work from substitute Oโ€™Toole in the build-up โ€” salvaged a 1-1 draw.

stefanie-curtis-celebrates Curtis (right) celebrates scoring with O'Toole. Donall Farmer / INPHO Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO

Ireland 1-1 The Irish Independent. The Irish Independent.

The qualification dream remained alive, and four days later, Reykjavikโ€™s Laugardalsvรถllur Stadium staged the return leg. Itโ€™s remembered for all the wrong reasons, with no shortage of controversy involved in the 3-0 defeat.

Minus temperatures in the Icelandic capital cast doubt over the fixture early in the week, but improved weather saw the pitch thaw out on the Wednesday, before it passed a final pre-match pitch inspection.

irish examiner pre iceland The Irish Examiner. The Irish Examiner.

All of the newspapers described โ€œdifficult, icy conditionsโ€ in their match reports, the Sportsfile photographs showing a frozen pitch with heaps of snow on the side as two goals from Lรกrusdรณttir and another from Vidarsdรณttir sent Iceland through.

Itโ€™s one that pains the Irish involved to this day; Niamh Faheyโ€™s mind immediately returning to Reykjavik when asked for any standout moments in the lead-up to her 100th cap in February.

โ€œThatโ€™s always a hard one,โ€ she told reporters. โ€œI remember them for the wrong reasons. The Euro 2009 play-off against Iceland, it was 1-1 in the first leg at home and lost 3-0 away.

โ€œThe second leg shouldnโ€™t have gone ahead because the pitch was frozen. They had some special footwear on but we couldnโ€™t get to grips. It was like ice-skating and one of our players came off and went to hospital thinking sheโ€™d broken both her wrists from falling on the pitch. It only went ahead because there was cameras there and Uefa said it had to. Noel King was going crazy, wanting the game called off after two minutes. That was closest weโ€™ve gotten to date.โ€

Screen Shot 2022-08-27 at 14.37.45 Irish Independent. Irish Independent.

Oโ€™Gorman, who was 19 at the time, remained at a similar loss to how the fixture went ahead in an interview with The Irish Mirror last October.

โ€œI will never forget the game, it was crazy, the pitch was like ice. The Icelanders must have been wearing ice-skates, they were all flying and we were all sliding around โ€” I think one of the girls fell and nearly broke both of her arms.

โ€œI remember the fourth official banging the shovel before the game and it wasnโ€™t breaking. And it was live on Eurosport, it was crazy. I donโ€™t think it would happen in this day and age.

โ€œIn hindsight, you probably say that we shouldnโ€™t have played. But we were in that moment, you had prepared, you had travelled to Iceland and qualifying for a tournament was only one game away, and that is the closest we ever got.โ€

noel-king-aine-ogorman-and-katie-taylor O'Gorman (left), King and Taylor In 2008. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Iceland went on to finish bottom of their group at the finals, which were ironically held in Finland. They endured three defeats from three, conceding five goals and scoring just one. They had the dream start, scoring against France in the sixth minute of their opener, but that was as good as it got for Irelandโ€™s conquerors.

The toppers of their group, Germany, went on to win the tournament, beating England 6-2 in the final. The Lionesses โ€” Euro 2022 champions after the same final pairing โ€” saw off the Netherlands, managed by a certain Vera Pauw, to get to the decider. They also edged out Finland, who hailed from the same group as the Dutch, in the quarter-final.

The showpiece was held at Olympic Stadium Helsinki โ€” the same venue at which Ireland secured a monumental 2-1 win over the Finns last October to kickstart their World Cup qualification bid.

Now that bid reaches its most crucial juncture.

A decisive double-header ahead as Ireland look to reach the heights of 2008 once more. 

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    Mute Mark Gerard Lochlain
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    Jan 3rd 2016, 7:18 PM

    Iโ€™d Deffo have Gustard

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    Mute Chris Mcdonnell
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    Jan 3rd 2016, 7:02 PM

    If swap a kidney ( no pun intended) for any of them to coach Leinster

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    Mute Christiaan Theron
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    Jan 3rd 2016, 10:01 PM

    Truth is the local indigenous coaches are a cheaper option.

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    Mute Paul Ahern
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    Jan 4th 2016, 12:41 PM

    For me (a kiwi) Wayne Smith is the unsung hero of the last 10 years of All Black success. He was the assistant coach at the previously underperformed Chiefs since 2011 where he helped take them to 2 Super Rugby titles. He is known there as โ€œthe Nutty Proffessor.โ€ He unnecessary fell on his sword after having only average success as All Blacks head coach but then had the tenacity and dignity to become assistant coach to Graham Henry and then Steve Hansen. All up a top bloke who has done amazing things with the All Blacks under circumstances where most would just turn their back on their team (and country) and take a well paid job in Europe. I was sooooo pleased when he made himself unavailable for the recent England vacancy.

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    Mute Hugh Quilty
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    Jan 4th 2016, 1:41 PM

    #bringbackjono

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    Mute Cormac Lucey
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    Jan 4th 2016, 1:25 PM

    You may argue that MOCโ€™s relatively OK first season was down to presence of Jonno Gibbes and that his relatively poor second season was down to Gibbesโ€™s absence.

    You could equally well argue that MOC initially enjoyed a Joe Schmidt inheritance that diminished as time passed and Joeโ€™s good practices were replaced by MOCโ€™s not so good ones.

    It seems to me that effective coaching takes considerable time to bed in. Leoโ€™s biggest problem at Leinster this year is that he was bequeathed MOCโ€™s weak inheritance. Seen in that light, and looking at the Pro-12 table, I think
    Leo is doing a pretty good job.

    Only time will tell whether Leo can make Leinster a cup contender at European level again. I expect Leinster will improve under him. But whether that improvement can catch up with the weight of money favouring French & English teams remains to be seen.

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    Mute Ivorpabst
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    Jan 4th 2016, 1:36 PM

    Leinster need to sign a top quality marquee overseas player (ideally utility back or wing), who they play in most big games.

    Its utterly ridiculous to have Kirchner on the bench week after week. The objective is to win games, & you canโ€™t do that with your overseas player on the bench.

    Thatโ€™s the tradeoff. If Kirchner is indeed not good enough to get his starting place (ahead of McFadden, D Kearney ???), then send him home & sign an overseas player who will not only start, but turn games, & help Leinster beat teams, & progress.

    Otherwise donโ€™t complain that the provinces keep losing but we have a great setup to feed the national team, where we might just yet again win the 6N Championship on points differenceโ€ฆ

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