Republic of Ireland 1-2 France
By Alyce Collett 3/3/26
Above: Melvine Malard (left) and Sandy Baltimore (right) celebrate after Malard scored one of her goals tonight against the Republic of Ireland. Photo: via UEFA.
France has gotten its UEFA Women’s Nations League campaign off to the perfect start, downing the Republic of Ireland 2-1 in Dublin. The Irish gave the more fancied French one hell of a fight and held the lead for most of the match thanks to an early goal from captain Katie McCabe, but a late second half brace from Melvine Malard helped France to the win.
To the surprise of little in the home camp it was the French who did much of the attacking early, but the Irish were not without chances.
As much as France did much of the attacking early, as the half progressed beyond its first 10 minutes, the Irish really started to grow into the game and build their attacking time.
Then in the 12 minute the upset goal came as a hard running McCabe worked her way into the box and after a well timed pass across from Emily Murphy, the Ireland skipper smashed her shot into the back of the net to give the home side an early lead.
After the goal France did take control of the possession, but as hard as the likes of Perle Morroni, Kadidiatou Diani, Sakina Karchaoui and others tried to generate dangerous attacking play for the French, a resolute Irish defence – particularly Anna Patten and Aoife Mannion – continued to defend the space in front of goal well and frustrate the French attacking force.
Not only that, but the Irish kept the defensive pressure on the French further up the pitch too, not leaving the French players much time to think and relax as such while in possession.
All of this meant that the Irish went into the half time break with that one goal lead and the upper hand.
The French started the second half much like they started the first, with the tempo of the game rising after the break.
However, much like much of the first half no matter how hard the French attackers tried, they just could not navigate around the Irish defence.
The home side did have a few dangerous chances of their own, with Caitlin Hayes and Denise O’Sullivan going close and Murphy creating plenty of nerves for the French defence.
Both sides made some changes at about the 70 minute mark, and for the French their chances created almost instant success. Malard took barely a minute after coming on to get the equalising goal for France, after navigating her way through the Irish defence with relative ease and perfectly strike the ball into the back of the net.
Malard was on the scorers sheet again not even 10 minutes later after she navigated the ball behind a slow reacting Irish defence, and momentum had completely flipped to the French.
Despite conceding the lead the Irish continued to try and push for a second goal, and in a frantic three minutes of second half extra time went about as close to scoring as they could without actually getting the goal. However, a brilliant header on the goal line from Marie-Antionette Katoto meant that France maintained their lead and left Dublin with the full three points.
Teams: REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (5-3-2): Brosnan, Mustaki, Hayes, Mannion, Connolly, O’Sullivan, McCabe, Patten, Sheva, Carusa, Murphy. Substitutes: Moloney, Whitehouse, Stapleton, Kiernan, Littlejohn, Barrett, O’Hanlon, Quinn, Finn, Larkin, Noonan, Toland.
Scorers: McCabe 12’
FRANCE (4-3-3): Picaud-Inconnu, De Almaida, Samoura, Lakrar, Morroni, Jean-Francois, Geyoro, Karchaoui, Diani, Baltimore, Mateo. Substitutes: Chavas, Pinguet, Cascarino, Sombath, N’Dongala, Sangare, Ebayilin, Fazer, Le Moguedec, Gago, Katoto, Malard.
Scorers: Malard 71’, 79’
Referee: Tess Olofsson [SWE]
Attendance: 8,376.
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