Republic of Ireland 1-0 Poland
By Alyce Collett 18/4/26
Above: Marissa Sheva (top) and Emily Murphy (bottom) celebrate after the former scored what turned out to be the match winning goal for the Girls in Green. Photo: via Ireland Football.
The Republic of Ireland have picked up another massive win in the context of their qualifying campaign for the 2027 World Cup, downing Poland 1-0 to beat the Poles for the second time within a week.
It was not the prettiest of performances, but making the most of one chance was all the Irish needed, and a fine goal from Marissa Sheva got the job done on the scoreboard.
The news was not all positive for the Republic of Ireland though, with both Emily Murphy and Denise O’Sullivan picking up a second yellow card for this campaign, therefore earning themselves a suspension for the next match of the campaign against the Netherlands.
It was a lot more even start to proceedings this afternoon than Tuesday’s match in Gdansk had been, with both sides getting some promising looks at goal in the opening minutes.
One thing that was clear though was that if the Irish were to make it two wins from two this window, they were going to have to work harder for more of the match in order to do so.
Ewa Pajor had the first close chance on goal, but ultimately went wide by the smallest of margins.
Murphy then went close up the other end moments later, but her shot bounced off the crossbar and away.
It was a free flowing first half, with a lot of end to end action but not many clear cut chances at goal.
Just as it was looking like the first half would be goalless, the Republic of Ireland struck with mere minutes left in the half.
A very well placed shot from Kyra Carusa was deflected by goal keeper Kinga Szemik, but the deflection bounced perfectly to Sheva on Szemik‘s blind side, and the lively Irish midfielder tapped the ball into the back of the net.
Sheva’s goal put the Irish on the front foot heading into half time, but that first half still gave both sides plenty to think about at the half time break.
The second half began in much the same way the first half had played out, but the home side did have significantly better chances than the visitors.
O’Sullivan went inches from doubling the Republic of Ireland’s lead about 10 minutes into the half, but like Murphy’s shot in the first half it too hit the crossbar.
The Irish continued to attack hard as the half progressed, but just could not find another goal, as close as they went on a number of occasions.
The Polish did have a few positive moments in their attacking third, but only had one moment that really challenged Courtney Brosnan in the Irish goal.
As regulation time ended and a very long eight minutes of stoppage time began, Poland perhaps sensed the urgency of the situation and began to really start to attack hard.
But no matter how hard the Polish attacked, a really strong defensive performance from the Irish kept the Polish at bay and ensured the Girls in Green gained maximum points from this international window.
Teams: REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (5-3-2): Brosnan, Mustaki, Hayes, Mannion, Connolly, O’Sullivan, McCabe, Patten, Sheva, Carusa, Murphy. Substitutes: Moloney, Whitehouse, Kiernan, Ziu, Barrett, Clancy, Quinn, Finn, Noonan, Larkin, Toland.
Scorers: Sheva 42’
POLAND (4-3-3): Szemik, Zieniewicz, Woś, Dudek, Wiankowska, Achcińska, Kamczyk, Pawollek, Tomasiak, Pajor, Krezyman. Substitutes: Radkiewicz, Szperkowska, Araśniewicz, Cyraniak, Grzybowska, Jedlińska, Nowak, Padilla-Bidas, Sarapata, Zaremba, Zawistowska.
Referee: Aleksandra Česen [SVN]
Attendance: 18,267.
Follow Impetus on social media:
@ImpetusFootball on Threads, Instagram and TikTok.
impetusfootball.org 