Women’s World Cup qualifiers: Republic of Ireland’s loss to France “painful” – Maccabi

Maccabi started and finished the attack for the opening goal after collecting the ball in her own half and passing it to Emily Murphy.

The 23-year-old then raced into the box and found the experienced Maccabi, who fired a low shot into the net for her 32nd international goal.

“Murph is in really good form, and I think she’s shown that in her last two games for Ireland,” McCabe continued.

“She’s a great asset in attack. She can link up the play, make it consistent and has the legs to run in behind.

“As soon as she got involved, I was screaming at her to blow it up for me and she did. It means nothing now, but we’ll look to continue improving that.”

The Republic of Ireland’s second match in Group A2 against the Netherlands will be played on Saturday (19:45 GMT).

Coach Arjan Voorink’s team tied with Poland in the opening match, with Republic of Ireland coach Carla Ward adding that the group was “wide open.”

“The group will be wide open,” Ward said. “Poland is a really good team, and so is Holland, but we showed that we are a good team.”

“No one gave us a chance.

He added: “This is what I told the players. No one outside this hall will give us the opportunity except us, and we have to give everything to give us every possible opportunity, and we did that.”