{"id":398437,"date":"2026-04-14T19:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/398437\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:25:10","slug":"katie-mccabe-and-emily-murphy-inspire-ireland-to-victory-over-poland-in-gdansk-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/398437\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie McCabe and Emily Murphy inspire Ireland to victory over Poland in Gdansk \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Cup qualifiers: Poland 2 (Pawollek 43, Pajor 78) Republic of Ireland 3 (Murphy 12, McCabe 20, Sheva 59)<\/p>\n

Five goals and a missed penalty by Katie McCabe<\/a> sounds like the Republic of Ireland<\/a> were embroiled in a thriller in Gdansk.<\/p>\n

Really, the visitors controlled large swathes of a World Cup qualifier that will be repeated at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).<\/p>\n

Early Irish goals from Emily Murphy and an unforgettable McCabe volley were not enough to see off Poland. Marissa Sheva\u2019s neat finish on the hour mark was needed to secure all three points. <\/p>\n

If Ireland can bottle the opening 20 minutes at the Gdansk Stadium then qualification for the 2027 World Cup<\/a> in Brazil should be achieved at a canter. <\/p>\n

Some concerns remain around Carla Ward<\/a>\u2019s team temporarily losing concentration when in control of games. Last month, strong French and Dutch sides were able to recalibrate and cancel out McCabe goals to leave Ireland with zero points. <\/p>\n

But this was addressed in impressive fashion here. McCabe brought her tally to three goals in three outings this year, almost as a reminder to Arsenal\u2019s Champions League rivals that the 30-year-old wing back is out of contract this summer. She is playing better than ever. <\/p>\n

Before the Irish skipper\u2019s strike made it 2-0, Murphy\u2019s goal after 11 minutes showed why the Newcastle United forward has become a key figure under Ward. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Emily Murphy in action against Poland’s Aleksandra Zaremba. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho<\/p>\n

The attack started as it usually does, with McCabe and Denise O\u2019Sullivan linking down the left before Murphy swerved past Tanja Pawollek and finished off Kinga Szemik\u2019s flailing glove. <\/p>\n

It was poor from the Polish goalkeeper but Ireland confirmed their dominance when McCabe leathered Oliwa Wos\u2019s clearance of Megan Connolly\u2019s corner from the edge of a crowded box. <\/p>\n

\u201cSerious world class technique,\u201d said Ward. \u201cI keep saying it: we\u2019ve the best left back in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poland upped the intensity, with O\u2019Sullivan repeatedly targeted off the ball, but Irish errors opened the door. Successive duffed clearances by Courtney Brosnan and Aoife Mannion invited Ewa Pajor to storm into the area, where Chloe Mustaki\u2019s slide tackle denied the Barcelona striker a shot on target. <\/p>\n

Poland got plenty of joy down Ireland\u2019s left flank for the remainder of the first half, and that\u2019s how Pawollek scored two minutes before the break. <\/p>\n

It came from a succession of avoidable errors. First, McCabe conceded a corner when trying to dribble from her end line and repeated failures to clear their lines invited Paula Tomasiak to curl the cross for Pawollek\u2019s powerful header past Brosnan. <\/p>\n

The Union Berlin midfielder was yellow carded moments later for roughing up O\u2019Sullivan. Remarkably, Bulgarian referee Hristiyana Guteva also booked the Cork woman. <\/p>\n

\"TanjaTanja Pawollek celebrates scoring Poland’s opening goal. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho<\/p>\n

Ireland, in any other era, would have battened down the hatches in the second half. Under Ward\u2019s cajoling they were rewarded for continually turning the Poles. <\/p>\n

Sheva has been a study in incremental improvement since breaking into the Ireland team at the 2023 World Cup. The Pennsylvanian\u2019s fourth international goal came from the subplot of the evening as O\u2019Sullivan and Pawollek were locked in a battle near the Polish corner flag.<\/p>\n

Pawollek stubbornly refused to put boot to ball and Murphy punished her by sending the half clearance towards Sheva, who finished in style. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just said to her: \u2018you love this system, don\u2019t you?\u2019\u201d said Ward of Sheva. \u201cThis group want to improve all the time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Plenty of Irish players showed up. Abbie Larkin made an impression in place of Kyra Carusa after the veteran centre forward withdrew sick before kick-off.<\/p>\n

Larkin has been impressive for Crystal Palace this season and off the bench for Ireland. The 20-year-old emerged here as genuine competition for Carusa before being replaced by Amber Barrett. <\/p>\n

Megan Connolly was quietly efficient in midfield, while the back five turned Pajor into a peripheral figure until she controlled Ewelina Kanczyk\u2019s pass and produced a deft lob over Brosnan to make it 3-2 with 12 minutes remaining. <\/p>\n

Back came Ireland with Murphy earning a penalty off Wos that McCabe blasted over the crossbar. Despite the captain\u2019s annoyance at herself afterwards, it proved to be a score Ireland could survive without.<\/p>\n

POLAND: Szemik; Zaremba, Wos, Dudek, Wiankowska (Zieniewicz 69); Achcinka (Kokosz 86), Kamczyk, Pawollek (Grzybowska 66); Tomasiak (Jedli\u0144ska 86), Pajor, Padilla (Sarapata 66). <\/p>\n

REP OF IRELAND: Brosnan; Mannion, Patten, Hayes, Mustaki, McCabe; Sheva (Ziu 86), O\u2019Sullivan, Connolly; Murphy, Larkin (Barrett 69). <\/p>\n

Referee: H Guteva (Bulgaria).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cup qualifiers: Poland 2 (Pawollek 43, Pajor 78) Republic of Ireland 3 (Murphy 12, McCabe 20, Sheva…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,59269,43,18998,23411],"class_list":{"0":"post-398437","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-nations-league","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt","13":"tag-womens-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398437","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=398437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}