\n BELGIUM 1 (Tess Wullaert 52, Marie Detruyer 82)\n <\/p>\n
Katie McCabe\u2019s indispensability\u00a0to the Ireland team was underlined by her brace putting Carla Ward\u2019s side within touching distance of the top tier of nations for next year\u2019s World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pity only 14,118 were in Lansdowne Road to witness the Arsenal winger\u2019s masterclass, her penalty in first-half stoppage time added to by another pair after the break.<\/p>\n
The hat-trick she thought was hers was removed by Uefa shortly after full-time.<\/p>\n
It was harsh because her shot on the run hit the net, via the post and the back of goalkeeper Nicky Evrard.<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s record of three Euro finals in a row ensures they\u2019ll fancy overturning the two-goal deficit in Tuesday\u2019s second leg in Leuven but it will take a vast improvement on this early Halloween horror show.<\/p>\n
Tuesday is also significant for crowning McCabe as Ireland\u2019s latest centurion.<\/p>\n
After swelling her goal haul to 31 at international level, she\u2019ll fancy enjoying more highs in the Lowlands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019d offered me a two-goal lead before this game, I\u2019d have snapped your hand off,\u201d said Ward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tie is far from over and the game will be massively different in Belgium but we can improve too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was Katie\u2019s best performance for Ireland in a long time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s indisputable. From almost being red-carded on her last visit to the stadium for the Euro playoff defeat, she was in red-hot form.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up watching Robbie Keane scoring hat-tricks and Damien Duff dribbling down the wing in the old Lansdowne,\u201d explained the player of the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was aware of the noise around team not being pretty to watch but we were at it from the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great win but we have to be humble because Belgium will be a test on Tuesday. To be honest, I was disappointed we conceded two sloppy goals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0If Ireland complete the upset, they will possess the parachute of a playoff route to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil regardless of how they fare in the regulation qualifiers between February and June of next year.<\/p>\n
Belgium were insipid from the outset and while Ireland took time to flourish, they were fully deserving of their interval lead.<\/p>\n
Denise O\u2019Sullivan was starting with just 20 minutes of football in the tank after her knee injury but together with sidekick McCabe, they had the visitors in peril, in keeping with their yellow shirts.<\/p>\n
Her pass on 11 minutes allowed Kyra Carusa to raid into the box and square for Emily Murphy, who couldn\u2019t apply a proper connection from six yards on the stretch.<\/p>\n
Laura Deloose fired wide on 19 minutes as Belgium came alive but it was otherwise a half in which Ireland fashioned the best openings.<\/p>\n
Evrard didn\u2019t look comfortable from McCabe\u2019s set-pieces and all Ireland lacked was someone on the end of the many knockdowns in the box.<\/p>\n
Ireland were down to 10 players when they forged ahead \u2013 Carusa waiting to return after receiving treatment \u2013 as another McCabe deadball caused chaos.<\/p>\n
As the loose ball bobbled, Jess Stapleton\u2019s shot struck the arm of Mariam Toloba before deflecting into Aoife Mannion\u2019s path. Referee Franziska Wildfeuer waited until her shot to signal handball \u2013 even if it looked a natural position \u2013 enabling McCabe to send Evrard the wrong way.<\/p>\n
Belgium sprung two changes at the break and soon levelled, aided by a rush of blood to Grace Moloney\u2019s head. The stand-in goalkeeper was untested in the first half but her dash from goal made it easy for Tess Wullaert to lob the advancing stopper for the veteran\u2019s 94th international goal.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later and Ireland were back in the lead. Little seemed on when McCabe took control just inside the opposition half but her intuition influenced an audacious attempt that struck the far post, goalkeeper and landed into the net.<\/p>\n
McCabe was urging more attacks at this stage and her next strike, eight minutes later, was a belter \u2013 arriving inside the box to bury a low left footer into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
Belgium were scrambling at this stage and another failure to clear presented Ireland with a third goal in 12 minutes. This time Marissa Sheva swiped at the ball as it cannoned around the box. The American-born player wheeled away in celebration after her rocket rippled the roof of the net.<\/p>\n
Marie Detruyer, one of the half-time subs for Belgium, punished a half-clearance by Ireland with eight minutes left by driving her shot inside Moloney\u2019s near post.<\/p>\n
It could be crucial but, with newly thirtysomething McCabe in this form, Ireland are well positioned to kill the tie.<\/p>\n
Regular defender Anna Patten may find it difficult to regain her spot after suspension.<\/p>\n
IRELAND: G Moloney; J Stapleton, C Hayes, C Mustaki; A Mannion, D O’Sullivan (J Finn 75), R Littlejohn (T Toland 60), K McCabe; E Murphy, M Sheva; K Carusa (S Noonan 75).<\/p>\n
BELGIUM: N Evart; S Kees, A Tysiak, J Cayman, L Deloose; E Dhont (M Detruyer 46), T De Caigny (Z Mertens 46), MA Toloba; J Teulings, T Wullaert, F Delacauw (A Reynders 60)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Referee: Franziska Wildfeuer (Germany)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Attendance: 14,118<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BELGIUM 1 (Tess Wullaert 52, Marie Detruyer 82) Katie McCabe\u2019s indispensability\u00a0to the Ireland team was underlined by her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,18998],"class_list":["post-102333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}