Republic of Ireland 1 - 0 Greece | 2021 - UEFA Under-19 Championship | 999947857

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship Round 2 | Ostrava

12 Apr 2022 14:00

Republic of Ireland 1 - 0 Greece

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REPORT | WU19 1-0 Greece

A late goal from Della Doherty gave the Republic of Ireland Women's Under-19s their second win of Round 2 in the UEFA WU19 European Championship Qualifiers as they overcame Greece 1-0.

13th Apr 2022

This was the last of three games for the WU19s - going from the joys of a 2-0 victory over Czech Republic to the tough low of a 3-0 loss to France which compromised their chances of progressing in the competition.

Nonetheless, Dave Connell’s side approached the side with positivity and ambition. In her final underage appearance, captain Della Doherty led out her Girls in Green for the last time. 11 other members of the squad made their final appearance in green of their underage career.

Greece kicked off the match in Czech Republic. Although Greece approached with pace, Ireland made a point of matching their intensity. Some early goal attempts from Greece were cleared by Ireland’s defensive structure. The 19th minute showed a promising attempt at goal for Ireland but it was collected by the hands of the Greek keeper.

Erin McLaughlin sent in an impressive attempt in the 27th minute but it was fantastic goalkeeping from Panagiotopoulou that prevented the first score of the match. Becky Watkins' incredible run resulted in a corner kick to Ireland but unfortunately wasn’t enough to secure the goal. The second half ended with all to play for at 0-0.

McLaughlin and Aoibheann Clancy got the second half underway. The second half proved difficult as both sides were evenly matched. Shamrock Rovers’ Maria Reynolds proved her skill, bringing life to a stagnant game. Ireland retained possession for the majority of the half. Fresh legs came to the pitch in the 87th minute with Jenna Slattery and Abby Tuthill joining the field of play, replacing Doherty and McLaughlin.

Captain fantastic Della Doherty would electrify Ostrava in the dying seconds of the game to create a 1-0 win over Greece with a screamer of a goal. Ireland leave the Czech Republic second in the group with a positive result to conclude the day.

Republic of Ireland: Rugile Auskalnyte, Kate Slevin, Shauna Brennan, Della Doherty ©, Jessie Stapleton, Becky Watkins, Aoibheann Clancy, Emma Doherty (87’ Abby Tuthill), Erin McLaughlin (87’ Jenna Slattery), Maria Reynolds, Emily Corbet.

Greece: Anna-Maria Panagiotopoulou, Maria Gerogoula (81’ Savvidou) , Georgia Pavlopoulou, Maria Zotou (81’ Mouka) , Vasiliki Giannaka, Olga Baxevanou (52’ Kromyda), Ioanna Papaptheodorou, Anastasia Tzaferi, Eleftheria Plakia, Mariana Katopodi.

Referee: Araksya Saribekyan (Armenia).

PREVIEW | WU19 v Greece

As Round 2 draws to its close, Dave Connell’s Republic of Ireland Women’s Under-19s will take on Greece in the last of three games based in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

12th Apr 2022

The Girls in Green got their campaign off to a flying start beating the host country, Czech Republic, 2-0 last week. Soon after they met current title holders, France, and suffered a 3-0 defeat on Saturday.

To proceed in the competition, Ireland must rely on the French losing to the Czech Republic as well as scoring 6+ goals in their performance against Greece. Although a tough round, the team have done incredibly well with their progress with multiple stand-out performances.

One of which was Wexford Youths' Becky Watkins. She elaborates on the progress so far: “The first game we got a positive result, we beat Czech Republic 2-0, everyone was kind of buzzing after that, like we said, we’d take it one match at a time. We really focused on them first. Then we went in to the France game, I think our mindset was really good going in to it. Everyone was really positive and I love that, even though the were the top three in the world, everyone was so positive going in to it. Obviously after it we had to hold our hands up and say they were the better team on the day.”

The defeat was a blow to the team, especially with the chance of progressing at risk: “Everyone was really sad about it after. It’s looking like we aren’t qualifying, we never know what can happen but I think we’ve kind of picked up the morale around camp and we’re ready to go now tomorrow.”

Looking forward to the Greek game, Watkins is optimistic: “We were training today and everyone looked really good. I was really impressed with how training went today. We were just practicing the tactics for tomorrow. Everyones looking really well and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Unfortunately for this team, it will be many player’s final underage performance in the green jersey. Becky explained how the team felt about this. “I think for a lot of us it is our last underage game and it’s a lot of our last year at Under 19s, there’s a few obviously coming up next year but I think for that it’ll be kind of a sad one for everyone but we want to finish on a high and just enjoy it as much as we can as our last game.”

UEFA WOMEN'S UNDER-19 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS
ROUND 2 - GROUP A7

Greece v Republic of Ireland
Tuesday, April 12th
Bazaly Stadium, Ostrava
KO 14:00 (15:00 local time)