{"id":334293,"date":"2026-03-07T19:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334293\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T19:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:57:08","slug":"netherlands-v-ireland-world-cup-qualifier-%c2%b7-the-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334293\/","title":{"rendered":"Netherlands v Ireland, World Cup qualifier \u00b7 The 42"},"content":{"rendered":"

42 mins ago <\/p>\n

7:14PM\n <\/p>\n

Hello, and welcome to tonight\u2019s liveblog.<\/p>\n

Ireland had an encouraging performance but a disappointing result against France<\/a> as they opened their World Cup qualification campaign on Tuesday at Tallaght Stadium.<\/p>\n

They kept one of the best sides in the world at bay for long spells and took an early lead through Katie McCabe before the French hit back in the second half, thanks to substitute Melvine Malard\u2019s brace.<\/p>\n

A last-gasp Denise O\u2019Sullivan effort cleared off the line reinforced the sense that it wasn\u2019t going to be Ireland\u2019s night, but Carla Ward praised the dogged performance afterwards, with her side unlucky not to come away with a point.<\/p>\n

They will be hoping to maintain that performance level in Utrecht tonight and achieve a better outcome, but will be underdogs again versus a Netherlands team that are 16 places above them in the Fifa rankings.<\/p>\n

The Dutch themselves will be less than satisfied after an opening 2-2 draw with Poland \u2014 the team that many pundits are tipping to compete with Ireland for third spot in the group.<\/p>\n

But it will undoubtedly be another big test for Ward\u2019s side, with the hosts possessing no shortage of world-class performers to choose from in their squad.<\/p>\n

Kick-off is at 7.45pm.<\/p>\n

The other game in the group, in which France host Poland, starts slightly later (8.10pm Irish time).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"42 mins ago 7:14PM Hello, and welcome to tonight\u2019s liveblog. Ireland had an encouraging performance but a disappointing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18999,61,60,4710,4707,4708,5151,43,3405,153781],"class_list":{"0":"post-334293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-carla-ward","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-ireland-republic","12":"tag-liveblog","13":"tag-minute-by-minute","14":"tag-netherlands","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-soccer","17":"tag-world-cup-qualifying"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334293","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=334293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}