Republic of Ireland 0 Spain 3
The Irish have been talking up their chances of going to Finland and exacting some revenge for the defeat they suffered in the opening home game of this campaign but it would be quite something if the journey to Spain next April yielded anything more than another learning experience. In this opening Euro 2017 encounter between the two sides the gulf in class was clear with the vistors scarcely flattered by their three goal margin of victory.
Two of the three came before the break, the first a well taken 20 yard strike by Vicky Losada, the second a penalty from Jennifer Hermoso after Sophie Perry had tripped Amanda Sampedro inside the area. The third only followed in injury time towards the end of a half in which the Irish appeared to have gotten to grips things a bit more and the manner of it must have been especially painful after all the hard work with a curling short by Olga Garcia was initially saved by Emma Byrne only for the ball to catch Perry on the shoulder and fly in at the far post.
“I thought the back four did well, particularly the two centre-halves and Emma,” said manager Sue Ronan immediately afterwards, “but the full-backs did well too and the whole team worked hard; I can’t complain about any of them really, they all worked their socks off.
“They obviously believe they can win the group, they want to win the group and that has to be the ambition but as a third seed let’s be realistic, the gaps are huge in Europe between the first and the third seeds, so second has always been our target and we’re still on track for that.
“Finland will hold no fears for us in Helsinki, obviously we’ll have to beat them but we’re still on track for that; the players just need to remember that. I was proud of their second half performance here and it was a pity that the last goal went in so late because it took the gloss off the scoreline, made it look worse than it might have. But at the end of the day, they are a very good team.”
Certainly, a side built around players drawn from the Spanish league’s top three sides, Atletico, Athletic Bilbao and, in particular, Barcelona had a little too much in just about every department for an Irish team who struggled throughout to get on the ball and then, even more so, to keep it.
At the heart of the defence, the experienced partnership of Louise Quinn and Niamh Fahey did do well under testing conditions but while none of their team mates could be faulted for effort, the rate at which the ball was allowed to keep coming back towards the Irish area inevitably added to the challenge.
Byrne saved the day on a couple of occasions, notably early and late on, but there were occasions too when everyone just seemed to wing their efforts to get the ball away with Jennifer Hermoso, in particular, looking bewildered at one stage, as to how she had not scored when the Irish goalkeeper failed to gather a low corner and Perry’s attempt to hoof the ball clear clattered back the Spaniard a couple of metres away and then straight onto the post.
Sue Ronan had suggested beforehand that the Spaniards might well win every one of their games over the course of the campaign and the Irish would probably settle for that now. A win in April’s other game, against Montenegro, but their fate will most likely be decided in the return games against the Finns and Portuguese, both of which may also have to be won.
They will take some heart here from the fact that they did have a little more of things in the second half. They were, of course, chasing the game by then and the Spaniards, perhaps, felt that they could afford to sit back a bit more and see things out but the only clear cut chance of a goal for the local supporters to get worked up about came a long way in when Denise O’Sullivan’s shot from outside the area was deflected promisingly into the path of Sophie Perry whose strike was in turn deflected narrowly wide of the left hand post.
For a moment, it had looked as if it was in, sparking celebrations in the stand. Instead, the let off seemed to wake the Spaniards up and, cheered on by a contingent of student supporters of their own, they finished strongly with the late goal wrapping up a solid away win that leaves them joint top of the Group Two table, three points clear of Ireland.
Republic of Ireland: Byrne (Arsenal); O'Gorman (UCD Waves)), Quinn (Eskilstuna), Fahey (Chelsea), Perry (Brighton); Caldwell (Avaldsnes), Duggan (UCD Waves); Killeen (Shelbourne), O'Sullivan (Glasgow City), Russell (UCD Waves); Littlejohn (Celtic). Subs: De Burca (Galway) for Killeen (half-time), Shine (Glasgow City) for Littlejohn (67 mins), Roche (Sunderland) for Duggan (80 mins).
Spain: Gallardo; Torrejon, Paredes, Garcia, Serrano; Losada, Torrecilla, Putellas; Corredera, Hermoso, Sampedro. Subs: Garcia for Corredera (58 mins), Jimenez for Sampedro (81 mins), Alexandra for Losada (87 mins).
Referee: S Frappart (France).
