Girls in Green secure huge prize with hard fought win

Poland 2-3 Republic of Ireland

By Alyce Collett 14/4/26

Above: Aoife Mannion (left) and Katie McCabe (right) celebrate after McCabe scored a trademark banger of a goal early in Ireland’s confidence boosting win over Poland. Photo: via Ireland Football.

The Republic of Ireland has breathed some new life into its World Cup qualifying campaign, earning a hard fought 3-2 win over Poland.

The Irish did control proceedings for much of the match and skipped out to an early lead thanks to Emily Murphy and skipper Katie McCabe, before a timely goal from Tanja Pawollek just changed the script a bit for the home side. Goals to Marissa Sheva and Ewa Pajor in the second half ultimately ensured that half time margin was also the full time margin.

The way that the Irish were able to win the match will also give them a lot of confidence not only for the return leg of this window on the weekend, but moving forward into the final window of the campaign. Despite losing momentum towards the end of the first half, the Irish regrouped well at half time and defended really well to ultimately emerge victorious.

Initially it was a pretty even start to the match, with neither side really taking control of proceedings.

One thing that both sides were doing early though was misplacing their passes, with the poor quality of the pitch not helping either side’s passing accuracy.

Eventually the Irish did make the break through on the scoreboard 12 minutes in, when Murphy wrong footed a couple of defenders and curled the ball perfectly into the back of the net.

The goal really gave the Irish a positive spring in their step, and as such they were starting to take a little bit of control of the match and a strong counter press from the Girls in Green was helping box the Poles into their defensive third.

That pressure brought reward again in the 20^th minute, when the deflection of a corner cross found McCabe at the edge of the box, who then scored an absolute banger from distance to double the Republic of Ireland’s lead.

Poland did have a really strong chance just before the half an hour mark, but some strong defensive work at the death from Aoife Mannion and then Anna Patten denied Natalia Padilla-Bidas and then Pajor.

But despite the brief moments of positivity from Poland as the half progressed, it was the visitors who were in control of the match. Paulina Tomasiak was proving dangerous on the left wing for Poland, but closer to goal some attentive defending from the Irish meant that the danger was reduced.

Just as it was looking like the Irish were going to take a clean sheet into the half time break, Pawollek popped up and headed the cross in perfectly to get one back for the home side.

Pawollek’s goal changed the balance of the game at the half time break.

The Poles gaining some confidence after being on the back foot for much of the half while for the visitors it was a case of needing to reset and take control of the match back to avoid proceedings ending the same way both matches did last window.

The second half started in much the same even way the first did, with both sides getting promising looks on goal.

Poland did deploy a slight change in tactic early in the second half though, with long through balls to the Polish attackers becoming a more prevalent part of proceedings.

It was the Republic of Ireland who would score first in the second half though, when Sheva used her powerful shooting ability to strike a long range shot from just inside the box straight into the back of the net.

Sheva’s goal seemed to settle things for the Irish, who really did retake control of the match and were passing with a lot more confidence than the home side were.

Poland were not going down without a fight though, and after her influence had been curtailed for most of the match, Pajor popped up with just over 10 minutes to go and perfectly chipped a shot over Courtney Brosnan and into the back of the net to breathe some life into the game for the hosts.

The Irish had a prime opportunity to put a halt to that breath of life mere minutes later, but McCabe uncharacteristically missed a penalty shot on goal.

It ultimately did not matter because as hard as Poland pushed at the end of the match, the Irish held firm and earned the full three points.

Teams: POLAND (4-3-3): Szemik, Zaremba, Woś, Dudek, Wiankowska, Achcińska, Kamczyk, Pawollek, Tomasiak, Pajor, Padilla-Bidas. Substitutes: Radkiewicz, Szperkowska, Araśniewicz, Cyraniak, Grzybowska, Jedlińska, Kokosz, Nowak, Sarapata, Szymaszek, Zawistowska, Zieniewicz.

Scorers: Pawollek 43’, Pajor 78′

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (5-3-2): Brosnan, Mustaki, Hayes, Mannion, Connolly, O’Sullivan, McCabe, Patten, Sheva, Larkin, Murphy. Substitutes: Moloney, Whitehouse, Reynolds, Kiernan, Ziu, Barrett, Clancy, Quinn, Finn, Noonan, Toland.

Scorers: Murphy 12’, McCabe 20’, Sheva 59′

Referee: Hristiyana Guteva [BUL]

Attendance: TBC.

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