Ireland keep Algarve hopes alive

Ireland retained some hope of advancing in the Algarve Cup with a scoreless draw against Wales in Portugal on Friday afternoon. 

After going down to a disappointing 1-0 loss in the opening match against Hungary, Ireland were unlucky not to beat Wales in a tight encounter.

Regular goalkeeper Emma Byrne of Arsenal was recalled after missing the first match through injury, and produced a fine display to shut out Ireland's near neighbours. Byrne, captaining the side for the first time, was on top form after 15 minutes to deny Gwennan Harries.

After Harries' chance, though, Ireland never really looked likely to lose and had several clear chances. Most notably, Peamount's Grace Murray and her former teammate Julie-Ann Russell- now of Doncaster Belles- both had chances to win the match for Ireland, but neither could get the decisive goal. 

Ireland still sit bottom of the group, but a win on Monday against hosts Portugal could yet see them finish as runners-up in group C. Portugal have been suffering from their own erratic form of late too, losing their opening match against Wales before hammering Hungary 4-0. 

Speaking afterwards Manager Sue Ronan was pleased with what she saw. "This was a much improved performance on the Hungary game and most pleasing was how well the players did," said Ronan.

"We've two more games here in the Algarve, with Portugal next up on Monday. The main thing to get from the four games here is more options for the remainder of the qualification campaign."

IRELAND: E. Byrne (Arsenal); S. Perry (Chelsea), D. Caldwell (Avaldsnes FC), M. Campbell (Raheny United), G. Murray (Peamount United); S. Smyth (Amazon Grimstad FK), D. Gorman (Peamount United), M. Curtin (Cork) [N Fahey '60]; A. O'Gorman (Peamount United), M. O'Brien (Chicago Red Eleven), JA. Russell (Doncaster Belles)