While Belgian coach Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir was left “disappointed, empty and confused” by her side’s relegation to the B division of the Nations League on Tuesday evening, Carla Ward was busy saluting her Republic of Ireland team after they earned a return to the top flight of the competition.
That they did so by beating, over two legs, a nation that are ranked seven places above them only added to her delight.
Abbie Larkin’s 90th-minute goal wasn’t enough to avert a 2-1 defeat by Belgium on Tuesday night, but it pushed Ireland over the line with a 5-4 win on aggregate, the 20-year-old Crystal Palace player describing the moment as the highlight of her career. That she has played in a World Cup – the youngest Irish player, male or female, ever to have done so – says something about what her second international goal meant to her.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for the Dubliner since she made her senior debut three years ago, her Leuven appearance earning her a 30th cap, but she’s shown plenty of resilience since a brief spell with Glasgow City following her departure from Shamrock Rovers. She’s had her highs and lows too with Crystal Palace, including last season’s relegation to the WSL2, but she’s been finding her feet in the current campaign, establishing herself in the side.
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Irish captain Katie McCabe, who won her 100th cap on Tuesday, praised Larkin for that resilience after the game. “She’s at a club now where she’s playing consistently, getting game time, she’s in good form, she’s learning. That’s the most important thing. At that age, you don’t want to be stuck on a bench and not playing.
“The composure she showed in front of her goal, it was unbelievable. I’m excited because we need more players like that in the squad. We’ve got such talent. When we keep them fit, keep them healthy, in good form, I think we’ve got really something good.”
While promotion puts Ireland back in the elite of the Nations League, which includes five of the world’s top 10 nations, the biggest prize of all is the guarantee of a seeded qualification playoff for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, even if Ireland were to finish bottom of their League A group. In that scenario, they would face League B opposition in the first round of playoffs for the finals.
They will discover the shape of that group next Tuesday when the draw is made, but no matter who comes out of the hat, it’s likely to be as big an ask as it was last time around. Having been drawn with England, France and Sweden, they lost five of their six games and were relegated to League B.
But League A is where they want to be, McCabe insists, stressing the need for the team to be taken out of its “comfort zone”. “Coming up against the best is the only way we’ll develop,” she said.
Ward, who revealed that Ireland will wrap up their year’s work with an away friendly next month, echoed that view. “We want to try and prove ourselves at that level, you only get better by playing against the best. It will be interesting to see who we get in the draw next week, hopefully it’ll be three big nations because we can learn an awful lot by playing teams of that calibre.”
Her dream draw? “I would love England at Wembley,” she laughed, “but they’d probably play us at Pride Park or somewhere.”
