{"id":110522,"date":"2025-10-29T15:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110522\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:18:07","slug":"carla-ward-salutes-ireland-squad-after-nations-league-promotion-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110522\/","title":{"rendered":"Carla Ward salutes Ireland squad after Nations League promotion \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Belgian coach El\u00edsabet Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir was left \u201cdisappointed, empty and confused\u201d by her side\u2019s relegation to the B division of the Nations League<\/a> on Tuesday evening, Carla Ward<\/a> was busy saluting her Republic of Ireland<\/a> team after they earned a return to the top flight of the competition.<\/p>\n

That they did so by beating, over two legs, a nation that are ranked seven places above them only added to her delight. <\/p>\n

Abbie Larkin\u2019s 90th-minute goal wasn\u2019t 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 \u2013 the youngest Irish player, male or female, ever to have done so \u2013 says something about what her second international goal meant to her. <\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t 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\u2019s shown plenty of resilience since a brief spell with Glasgow City following her departure from Shamrock Rovers. She\u2019s had her highs and lows too with Crystal Palace, including last season\u2019s relegation to the WSL2, but she\u2019s been finding her feet in the current campaign, establishing herself in the side. <\/p>\n

Irish captain Katie McCabe<\/a>, who won her 100th cap on Tuesday, praised Larkin for that resilience after the game. \u201cShe\u2019s at a club now where she\u2019s playing consistently, getting game time, she\u2019s in good form, she\u2019s learning. That\u2019s the most important thing. At that age, you don\u2019t want to be stuck on a bench and not playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe composure she showed in front of her goal, it was unbelievable. I\u2019m excited because we need more players like that in the squad. We\u2019ve got such talent. When we keep them fit, keep them healthy, in good form, I think we\u2019ve got really something good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AbbieAbbie Larkin celebrates after Tuesday’s second-leg fixture against Belgium. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

While promotion puts Ireland back in the elite of the Nations League, which includes five of the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

But League A is where they want to be, McCabe insists, stressing the need for the team to be taken out of its \u201ccomfort zone\u201d. \u201cComing up against the best is the only way we\u2019ll develop,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Ward, who revealed that Ireland will wrap up their year\u2019s work with an away friendly next month, echoed that view. \u201cWe 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\u2019ll be three big nations because we can learn an awful lot by playing teams of that calibre.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her dream draw? \u201cI would love England at Wembley,\u201d she laughed, \u201cbut they\u2019d probably play us at Pride Park or somewhere.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Belgian coach El\u00edsabet Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir was left \u201cdisappointed, empty and confused\u201d by her side\u2019s relegation to the B…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18999,61,60,59269,43,18998],"class_list":["post-110522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-carla-ward","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nations-league","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110522","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=110522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}