EURO 2025 play-off final first leg
Wales 1-1 Republic of Ireland
Northern Ireland 0-4 Norway
The Republic of Ireland claimed a 1-1 draw in the Cardiff City Stadium tonight, with Wales travelling to Dublin for the EURO 2025 play-off final second leg on Tuesday.
Eileen Gleeson’s charges fell behind early on against an impressive Wales, as the returning Jess Fishlock - her country’s record goalscorer - this time turned provider.
Her wicked cross saw an attempted Irish clearance skewed towards the back post, and Lily Woodham was sharpest to volley low into the net from close range.
Ireland responded however, as their opposition sat deep. Ironically it was another returnee, Ruesha Littlejohn, who had the ultimate hand in the equaliser.
Her glorious finessed strike from all of 30 yards was millimeters from creeping into the top right hand corner, but between a combination of the crossbar and goalkeeper Olivia Clark, marked down officially as an own goal.
The second half was a more turgid affair as both sides looked wary of defeat. That said, the first minute or two of injury time looser than both managers would have been banking on, before the Irish controlled possession to see home the draw.
Elsewhere, Northern Ireland face a daunting trip to Norway after being defeated 4-0 in Larne tonight.
Their opponents - ranked 16th in the world - opened the scoring through Graham Hansen, with the game just seven minutes old.
Her second was sandwiched by namesake Tuva Hansen’s 14th minute strike to mark Tanya Oxtoby’s side’s first loss in five games.
The latter half saw major improvement from the hosts, with Oxtoby opting to bring in Chloe McCarron and Keri Halliday to shore things up.
Guro Bergsvand struck again for the Scandinavian side however, and it will take an almighty performance to deny them a place in the European Championships in Switzerland next summer.