Sports Editor Adam Schmitz tells you all you need to know before the Women’s National Team’s all important Playoff Final coming up in the next two weeks.
Ireland are just 180 minutes away from qualifying for their first ever European Championships as Eileen Gleeson’s side play Wales in the playoff finals later this month. The Girls in Green will play the first leg in Wales on November 29, before hosting the second leg in the Aviva Stadium on December 3.
The two sides’ playoff semi finals were very different affairs. When Slovakia visited Wales in October, Cymru managed to book their ticket to the final round in extra time, winning 2-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate. Prior to that, Wales had finished top of their League B qualifying group, securing their spot in the playoff as well as promotion to League A in next year’s Nations League.
Conversely, the Republic of Ireland saw relegation from League A after finishing bottom of a strong group featuring England, France and Sweden. The fourth place finish, albeit disappointing, still earned a play-off spot for the side who at the end of the league stage had won just one fixture in 2024. The Irish team were gifted an easy playoff semi-final against Georgia, who rank 118th in the world, which saw a staggering 6-0 victory away from home and a win of three goals to nil in the return leg in Dublin at the end of October.
When Ireland and Cymru meet this month it won’t be the first meeting of the teams this year, with Ireland having lost 2-0 in a February friendly. There’s no doubting the difficulty of the fixtures the team have faced this year, but there’s no doubt it will have been a disappointing first full year in charge for Eileen Gleeson, having taken over for Vera Pauw after her contract was not renewed in August 2023.
Both sides are hoping to make their Euros debut in Switzerland next year. Nine teams have already automatically qualified for the tournament, including former winners Germany, Netherlands and reigning champions England.
There’s been a few other stories around the Women’s National team in the last few weeks. Courtney Brosnan, who didn’t feature in the games against Georgia due to suspension but played in Ireland’s previous thirty games, picked up the Senior Women’s International Player of the Year award at the FAI international awards last week. Heather Payne won the Young Player of the Year award for the second year running at the same event.
The Girls in Green also learnt earlier this month of their opponents for next year’s Nations League Group B2. They’ll face Turkey, Slovenia and Greece in their return to the second division. Speaking on the draw, but keeping attention on the upcoming playoff final, Eileen Gleeson said “Promotion to League A is the overall aim for the upcoming Nations League campaign to ensure we compete at the highest level and maximise opportunities to qualify for major tournaments. For now, our focus remains on the UEFA Euro 2025 qualifying playoff with two huge games”.
Tickets remain on sale for the second leg of the Playoff in the Aviva Stadium on December 3.