Soccer

Eileen Gleeson to opt for pragmatism in formidable qualifying campaign

The swashbuckling approach to last year’s Nations League campaign will have to be tempered against top sides like France, England and Sweden

Anna Patten: the 34-year-old Aston Villa defender is the one new face in the Ireland squad for the forthcoming Euro 2025 games. Photograph: Naomi Baker/Getty Images

Mary Hannigan
Fri Mar 29 2024 - 06:00

A measure of the challenge facing the Republic of Ireland when they open their Euro 2025 qualifying campaign against France in Metz next Friday (April 5th) was the quality of the squad announced by Hervé Renard on Thursday afternoon, a few hours after Eileen Gleeson unveiled her squad at Sky HQ in Dublin.

Of the 24 players selected by the French coach, 10 are Champions League winners and 15 featured in the quarter-finals of this season’s competition – as opposed to none from Ireland. The squad also includes three of the game’s biggest stars down the years, Wendie Renard, Eugénie Le Sommer and Amandine Henry who possess just the 445 caps between them.

But Gleeson was never under any illusions about the size of the task once the draw was made earlier this month, England – who come to the Aviva Stadium the Tuesday after the French game – and Sweden, Ireland’s other formidable opponents.

“It was the group of death that nobody wanted to be in,” she smiled.

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Having called up 40 players to her squads since last September, giving game-time to 28 of them in her eight games in charge, Gleeson has largely stuck with the tried and tested this time around, the one new face being that of former England underage international Anna Patten.

The 24-year-old Aston Villa defender, a former team-mate of Megan Connolly at Florida State University and Katie McCabe at Arsenal, qualifies for Ireland through her Donegal-born grandfather and Galway-born grandmother, but is still awaiting international clearance from Fifa before being declared eligible for the start of the campaign.

Emily Murphy, another former England youth player, retains her place after making her debut against Wales last month.

The most notable absentee is Sinead Farrelly who is ruled out with the quad injury that saw her miss Gotham’s first two games of the NWSL season, an evident frustration for Gleeson who has only been able to call upon the midfielder three times in those eight games.

And the coach will most likely have to make do without Liverpool captain Niamh Fahey who, while included in the squad, is now facing “a few weeks” out with a calf injury, according to her club manager Matt Beard on Thursday.

On the positive side, Blackburn Rovers midfielder Tyler Toland returns after missing the last international window. But there is no room for any home-based players, Gleeson having previously called up the Peamount United quartet of Erin McLaughlin, Jess Fitzgerald, Freya Healy and Ellen Dolan, as well as the now injured Savannah McCarthy of Shamrock Rovers.

“I think that’s representative of the competition in the squad right now, and that more players are playing at higher levels of the game,” she said.

“Our first look is always at the LOI and of course we want to bring players through, but the key thing is that they’re playing at a high enough level to sustain the intensity that you’re going to get at international level – the LOI is developing nicely, but there is still a lot that has to be developed.

“So, the level of the opposition in this group doesn’t allow us to bring the likes of young Freya and Ellen in, we have to have a bit more experience at this point.”

On Patten’s call-up, Gleeson said that she had been talking to the player “on an ongoing basis” and believes that she can be “a great addition to the squad”.

“She’s playing at a really high level in the WSL, she’s strong, competitive, she can bring a lot of good characteristics to our team. Once her eligibility is rubber-stamped, she is available for selection.”

She conceded that overlooking the likes of Hayley Nolan and Claire O’Riordan, both defenders having fine seasons with Crystal Palace and Standard Liege, respectively, while bringing in a player who has just switched allegiances, is “difficult on a personal level”, but accepted that she has to be ruthless when making these decisions.

“And they are very tough decisions, but we have to try and expand our talent pool and it is not new that players come in with different accents, different backgrounds, different places of birth, different familial roots. We are not looking to bring in anybody who doesn’t want to fully commit to Ireland, who doesn’t have a connection to Ireland and who wouldn’t fit into the group. But we think Anna can do that.”

Part of the reason for bringing Patten in, she said, is the need to refresh her defensive options.

“Age doesn’t wait for anybody, Louise [Quinn, 33], Diane [Caldwell, 35] and Niamh [Fahey, 36] would be very aware themselves about the lifespan of a top level athlete, so we have to have a longer-term view. We have Jessie Stapleton coming through, we have Aoife Mannion, hopefully, but we need more options when those players naturally transition out of football.”

Having been grouped with the second-, third- and sixth-ranked nations in the world, Gleeson suggested that pause will be pressed on the swashbuckling approach to last year’s Nations League campaign against lesser opposition.

“Of course we’ll have to be more pragmatic. If there were bets on, the probability is for us to finish fourth in the group – but that can’t be our starting point, and that’s not the approach we’ll be taking. We’ll compete while we’re there. But we know we have to be realistic too.”

Republic of Ireland

Goalkeepers: Courtney Brosnan (Everton), Grace Moloney (London City Lionesses), Sophie Whitehouse (Lewes). Defenders: Jessie Stapleton (Reading - on loan from West Ham), Diane Caldwell (FC Zurich), Louise Quinn (Birmingham City), Niamh Fahey (Liverpool), Aoife Mannion (Manchester United), Caitlin Hayes (Celtic), Anna Patten (Aston Villa), Megan Campbell (London City Lionesses). Midfielders: Katie McCabe (Arsenal), Denise O’Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), Megan Connolly (Bristol City), Ruesha Littlejohn (London City Lionesses), Tyler Toland (Blackburn Rovers), Lily Agg (Birmingham City), Heather Payne (Everton), Jess Ziu (West Ham), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City), Izzy Atkinson (Crystal Palace). Forwards: Kyra Carusa (San Diego Wave), Abbie Larkin (Crystal Palace), Amber Barrett (Standard Liege), Leanne Kiernan (Liverpool), Emily Murphy (Wake Forest University).

France

Goalkeepers: Solène Durand (Sassuolo), Pauline Peyraud-Magnin (Juventus), Constance Picaud (Paris Saint-Germain). Defenders: Élisa De Almeida, Sakina Karchaoui, Thiniba Samoura (all Paris Saint-Germain), Wendie Renard, Griedge Mbock Bathy (both Lyon), Estelle Cascarino (Juventus), Maëlle Lakrar (Montpellier), Ève Périsset (Chelsea). Midfielders: Sandy Baltimore, Grace Geyoro (both Paris Saint-Germain), Amandine Henry (Angel City), Selma Bacha (Lyon), Kenza Dali (Aston Villa), Lea Le Garrec (FC Fleury), Sandie Toletti (Real Madrid). Forwards: Vicki Becho, Kadidiatou Diani, Eugénie Le Sommer, Delphine Cascarino (all Lyon), Julie Dufour (Paris FC), Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Paris Saint-Germain).

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan is a sports writer with The Irish Times

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