{"id":185339,"date":"2025-12-10T19:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185339\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:22:12","slug":"belgians-show-class-as-ireland-go-down-to-narrow-defeat-on-fih-pro-league-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185339\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgians show class as Ireland go down to narrow defeat on FIH Pro League debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nIreland 1 Belgium 2\n<\/p>\n

\"Ireland's<\/p>\n

Ireland’s Mia Jennings in action against Belgium’s Lien Hillewaert during the FIH Women’s Hockey Pro League match at the Sport Ireland Campus. Photo: Ben McShane\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\"Jessica<\/p>\n

Jessica McMaster of Ireland takes a selfie with supporters. Photo: Ben McShane\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\"thumbnail:\"thumbnail:<\/p>\n

Ireland women\u2019s hockey team opened their first FIH Pro League campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Belgium in front of a sold-out crowd at the Sport Ireland Campus in Abbotstown.<\/p>\n

Facing the World No 3 side, the hosts went into the game as outsiders and predictably, it was the Belgians who set the early pace.<\/p>\n

After a scoreless opening quarter, the visitors took the lead midway through the second quarter with Ambre Ballenghien finding the net after a swift-counter attack.<\/p>\n

Early in the second half, Belgium\u2019s pressure paid off when they doubled their lead after Ballenghien struck again \u2013 sweeping a strike past Ireland goalkeeper Lizzie Murphy.<\/p>\n

\"Jessica<\/p>\n

Jessica McMaster of Ireland takes a selfie with supporters. Photo: Ben McShane\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

After this, the home side regrouped and began to enjoy more possession with both Katie Mullan and captain Sarah Hawkshaw going close to opening their account.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s pressure was eventually rewarded after they had forced a series of short corners with Ellen Curran deflecting home a Hannah McLaughlin shot. Up next is a clash tomorrow with England who suffered a 3-1 loss to Belgium earlier this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland 1 Belgium 2 Ireland’s Mia Jennings in action against Belgium’s Lien Hillewaert during the FIH Women’s Hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,898,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-185339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185339","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=185339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}