Katie McCabe also missed a penalty, but it didn’t affect the outcome as Ireland picked up three crucial World Cup points.
Ireland’s Katie McCabe celebrates her stunning volley against Poland(Image: INPHO/Ryan Byrne)
Ireland boss Carla Ward has hailed Katie McCabe as “the best left-back in the world.”
Ward admitted she was left in shock as McCabe scored a world-class volley to double Ireland’s lead against Poland on Tuesday night.
The Arsenal star missed a penalty late in the second-half when she blasted the ball over the bar, but that didn’t stop the Girls in Green from collecting three crucial World Cup points.
They head into Saturday’s return game against Poland at the Aviva Stadium knowing that a win would all but guarantee a third-placed finish.
That would make qualification far less challenging, as it would mean a play-off semi-final later this year against a League C team over two legs.
Victory in that tie would set up a decider against either a League B nation or a fourth placed League A side.
McCabe’s 20th minute goal saw Ireland race into a 2-0 lead in Gdansk. She swung her left boot at an attempt to clear Megan Connolly’s corner, and sent the ball arching over a crowded area and into the right-hand-corner of the net.
Reacting to that strike, Ward said: “I don’t know if the camera even caught my face, I think I stood still for a moment or two.
“It was unbelievable. It takes some serious world-class technique.
“I say it all the time, we’re blessed that we’ve got the best left-back in the world in my opinion. How she struck that ball, how she landed it was superb.”
Ward spoke of her pride at the team performance, as Ireland took it to their hosts from the first whistle and kept Barcelona striker Ewa Pajor quiet for most of the game, until she popped up with a late consolation.
“I think it was well deserved. For 90 minutes we were the better team,” Ward said. “I think what we tried to do, hurt them in the spaces we wanted to, we achieved that.
“I’m disappointed with the two goals, of course. You know me, we’d like to have kept a clean sheet. But this group of players deserve an awful lot of credit.
“To turn a result in tonight away from home in a tricky place to play, they deserve an awful lot of credit.
“I really hope the girls get the praise they deserve, because they have shown across three games how well they’ve done.
“We said we wanted to get over the line against these sorts of teams and we have.
“We want to take six points from this window and if we can then it puts us in a really strong position.”
McCabe, meanwhile, deflected praise for her goal and admitted that she was “more disappointed” about her penalty miss.
She said: “No excuses for me. My standards are I want to be hitting the back of the net with those penalties. So I’ll be quite annoyed with that one.
“But I was just delighted we were able to see the game out in the way we did. The impact from the bench as well was really important.”
She added: “It was all about the three points for us. Obviously the first two games were really tough against France and the Netherlands.
“We were close and we didn’t quite get over the line, so going into tonight was really important.
“We knew Poland are a fantastic team, so it was really important for us to get control of the ball and I think we did that really well.
“I just want to win on Saturday. As I said, I don’t mind who scores. Everyone has been unbelievable with the impact they’re making in this team.
“So we just need to build off this performance and work towards Saturday, and hope the fans come out in their numbers to support us in the Aviva.”