Jess Ziu: ‘Every time I step on to the pitch, I won't take it for granted…I'm just going to play with a smile on my face’

Macdara Ferris reports from Tallaght Stadium

Jess Ziu described Tuesday’s defeat to Cymru as “a bit of a bittersweet moment for me personally”.

The Ireland player suffered a damaging ACL knee injury in October 2022 just a handle of games into her West Ham United career after the move from Shelbourne.

After a lenghty rehab that saw her miss the World Cup, her return to playing for her country came in the scoreless draw away to Italy last Friday - with her first home game in green coming in this 2-0 loss to Wales.

“It was my first 90 minutes in over 16 months I think so that felt really  good,” said the 21-year-old midfielder. “Every time I step on to the pitch, I won't take it for granted since I done my knee. I'm just going to play with a smile on my face and take everything in my stride. It feels great to be back."

It was a poor performance by Ireland who were 2-0 down at half time – a scoreline  that remained unchanged in a second half when Ireland did at least raise their game.

“As a collective and as a team I think we were off the pace. It wasn't the best performance. I actually don't think we really deserved to get a result but we can improve. We didn't get at them enough, we didn't take any shots at the keeper."

The second half performance was aided by the introduction of two strikers and the deployment of Ziu in a more central role.

“I'm naturally a ten so I like to get on the ball and turn and run at players. When Eilo (Eileen Gleeson) said at half-time, 'you're going to go into the ten' I was really excited."

extratime.com asked the palyer of the match what she thought the reasoning was behind their poor performane compared with the draw in Italy.

"I think their formation caught us off guard. With a new (interim) manager we kind of went into the game not knowing whether they'd pay with a five or a four - they ended up playing with a five.

“I do think that caught us off guard, where with Italy we just matched up. Four at the back, four at the back, vice versa. We just didn't adapt to it quick enough."

Jess Ziu described Tuesday’s defeat to Cymru as “a bit of a bittersweet moment for me personally”.

The game was played out in front of the largest ever crowd for a women’s game in Tallaght.

"The fans are unbelievable,” said Ziu about the 8,218 crowd. “The atmosphere is crazy. You can't hear anything on the pitch. Hopefully we can keep building on that and get more fans out. It's great to see all the kids with big smiles on their faces."

Eileen Gleeson rues errors as Ireland get Welsh wake up call ahead of EURO qualifiers https://t.co/P69648KYncpic.twitter.com/aSlW5u4x7c

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) February 28, 2024