{"id":485257,"date":"2026-06-05T22:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485257\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:57:10","slug":"ireland-manager-carla-ward-this-group-has-resilience-character-togetherness-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485257\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland manager Carla Ward: \u2018This group has resilience, character, togetherness\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amber Barrett\u2019s 90th minute goal<\/a> to secure a 3-2 victory over the Netherlands in Cork means that the Republic of Ireland<\/a> can qualify for the World Cup in Brazil next summer if Carla Ward<\/a>\u2019s side beat France in Grenoble on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

A draw could be enough for France to top Group A2 although the Dutch will qualify by taking three points off Poland in Almelo as they have a superior head to head against the French. Both matches kick off at 8pm Irish time.<\/p>\n

So, really, Ireland need to deliver the greatest result in the history of Irish football, overcoming the sixth-ranked nation in the world at Stade des Alpes to outlast two giants of the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, they will go into a draw on June 24th for a two-legged playoff semi-final in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was bloody mental,\u201d said Barrett after her goal brought back memories of her strike at Hampden Park in November 2022 to send Ireland to the first ever World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think how resilient we were that last 20 minutes, then equalising, us going straight back the other end and scoring,\u201d said Barrett of Abbie Larkin\u2019s goal to make it 2-1 at Pairc Ui Chaoimh before Victoria Pelova drew the Dutch level with nine minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourtney [Brosnan] made some unbelievable saves, but in games like that, it only takes one chance, and thank God I was there at the back post.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carla Ward, the Ireland manager who has guided Ireland to within one win of reaching their second major tournament, was adamant that the job is only half done.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack to work straight away. We\u2019ll refuel and go to France to do what nobody expected us to do. I am big on belief, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland will be without Leanne Kiernan against France, after her sending off in injury-time on Friday night, but Liverpool midfielder Denise O\u2019Sullivan and Newcastle United forward Emily Murphy both return from suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had two plans, one for the first half,\u201d Ward revealed after Ruesha Littlejohn and Abbie Larkin produced their best games in a green jersey after replacing the suspended O\u2019Sullivan and Murphy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that we were going to take Ruesha off at half-time and finish with Jess Ziu for the second half. So they\u2019re slightly different, well, very different players.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, the girls were fantastic tonight, every single one of them but having Denise and Murph back for Tuesday will be absolutely huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward, who previously managed Aston Villa in the WSL before being appointed by the FAI in January 2025, added: \u201cThis group has a resilience and character, but most importantly a togetherness. We have a culture built on a family unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might sound cliche, but I tell them all the time, we look after each other. And I said to him in the huddle before we went out, your team-mate misses a tackle, the next one takes one for the team. They are an absolute joy to work with this group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amber Barrett\u2019s 90th minute goal to secure a 3-2 victory over the Netherlands in Cork means that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19000,18999,61,60,43,18998],"class_list":["post-485257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-amber-barrett","tag-carla-ward","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485257","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=485257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}