Eileen Gleeson rues errors as Ireland get Welsh wake up call ahead of EURO qualifiers

Macdara Ferris reports from Tallaght Stadium

Eileen Gleeson wasn’t blaming the late injury to Niamh Fahey for her team’s flat first half performance which ultimatley left Ireland with too much to do against Cyrmu in Tallaght on Tuesday night.

The Girls in Green couldn’t overturn the 2-0 half time lead Wales had built up as Gleeson lost her unbeatan record as

Fahey picked up an IT band issue that necessitated a late call up for Diane Caldwell with the Ireland boss saying that the issue that forced Katie McCabe off in the 73rd minute was just a tight quad.

“It is a disruption,” said Gleeson about Fahey’s withdrawel. “She is solid and was player of the match on Friday (in the 0-0 draw away to Italy) but at the same time we have to be able to adapt to that.

“It happened right at the end of the warm up. Diane didn't have much time to do anything but get ready so that was unsettling. We won't make that any kind of a reason that we didn't win the game this evening.”

Gleeson went with a back four for back-to-back games but were 2-0 down inside 22 minutes as she rued her team’s mistakes. “The first half was not anything we anticipated. I felt we didn't really do the simple things well.

“We gave away very cheaply and were slow with our decision making. We were playing passes into crowded areas and gave it away. These are simple things that you can affect.

"Whether Fahey has to come out or Diane has to come in, they are not really related to that or whether we have a back four or a back three.

"They are the simple things that you have to do well and I feel that we definitely didn't do them well in the first half.

“In the second half we were a bit better and you can see that we changed it and brought two strikers on. Kyra (Carusa) and Emily (Murphy) gave us a good partnership.

"They allowed us to hold the ball up and play a bit better. We gave ourselves way too much to do from the first half.”

Ireland will be facing teams from the League A section of the Nations League in EURO 2025 qualifiers – the top UEFA level from which Wales were relegated from. “Both teams are probably like for like in terms of players, and the levels they play at and the leagues that they play in so it was never going to be easy tonight.

“Wales have a lot of experience playing in League A against teams like Germany, Iceland and Denmark. They are a good solid team. We feel we had a really positive performance in Italy. Maybe it was a little bit of a lag from that game in terms of managing players' load and the injuries.

"Look there is no excuse - it wasn't where it should have been and we didn't do the simple things well enough.” 

Friendly Report: Republic of Ireland 0 – 2 Cymru https://t.co/3sMAWp69u2pic.twitter.com/7DIRckTHEy

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) February 27, 2024