Denise O’Sullivan: ‘We had a go at them but being without the ball for 90 minutes is mentally tiring’

Macdara Ferris reports from the Aviva Stadium

International jet setting for international football is part and parcel of being a professional footballer for Denise O’Sullivan. The Cork woman flew in from North Carolina for the double header against the world number two (England) and three (France) in the last week but will be back for her club side’s home game on Saturday against the Portland Thorns.

It was a tough battle in the midfield in the 2-0 defeat to England for O’Sullivan on Tuesday night in the Aviva and she admitted she was “exhausted” after the game (see match report here).

“It was a frustrating game for me but we’ve got to keep going. I’ve got to get back to my club and play another game on Saturday! It’s just non-stop go.

“Obviously disappointed not to come away with any points from the two games. This is the level that we’re at now. We have to stay positive, we had a go at them but being without the ball for 90 minutes is mentally tiring. 

“In the first half, we were too deep. We went in at half time and Eileen (Gleeson) and the staff told us to push on. We tend to do that in second halves, we have a right go at them. We created a few chances.”

Prior to European champions England’s 1-1 draw with Sweden on Friday, their last three matches saw them win 5-1 (against Italy who Ireland drew 0-0 with in February), 7-2 (Austria) and 6-0 (over Scotland who Ireland beat last year 1-0 in the World Cup play-off).

“Look, there’s other teams they’d score five or six against. Credit to our defenders, they were excellent. They’ve always been brilliant for us. We’ll try and stay positive ourselves and hopefully try and get some points on the board in the next few games.

“We’re up against world class players and we have to get there. As a nation, we’re really good defensively – organised, and our structure has always been really good.

"The next thing for us is to get on the ball and what we can do with it. We know we have to improve in that area. We can learn from it and take it into the next games.”

extratime.com asked O’Sullivan will they look to try and bottle up and re-use that performance from the final half an hour of the match when they took the game to England. 

“Definitely – the last 30 minutes of the game it was a lot of us, a lot of Ireland.

"We got chances and the subs made a massive difference coming into the game. They are the positives we need to take. We know what we can do, but we need to do it earlier.”

While the stadium had 3,000 fewer fans than came for last September's Saturday afternoon Nations League showdown with Northen Ireland, it was a excellent for the girls in green to play in front of 32,742 spectators. The match was live on RTÉ2 with the Champions League clash of Man City and Real Madrid shunted to the RTÉ Player and News Now TV stations.

“The crowd were absolutely fantastic. It’s amazing to see 32,000 fans come out – it just shows how the game is going and how far the game has grown in Ireland.” 

Eileen Gleeson: ‘There is progression but now we need the result’ https://t.co/gpaEqw7Blwpic.twitter.com/CK2Tib3juA

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) April 9, 2024