\nLimerick book All-Ireland final place after dramatic late turnaround against Clare\n<\/p>\n
Limerick will face Galway in the 2026 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final after producing a remarkable late comeback to defeat fierce rivals Clare 1-21 to 1-19 in a gripping semi-final at Croke Park.<\/p>\n
Clare looked to be in complete control for long periods and deservedly held a five-point advantage at half-time, leading 0-16 to 0-11 after an impressive opening 35 minutes. Tony Kelly, Mark Rodgers and Peter Duggan were all influential as the Banner kept the scoreboard ticking over, while Limerick struggled with their shooting accuracy, hitting seven first-half wides.<\/p>\n
John Kiely\u2019s side responded strongly after the restart, gradually chipping away at the deficit through the accuracy of Aidan O\u2019Connor and Diarmaid Byrnes, but Clare continued to answer every challenge and looked to have one foot in the All-Ireland final.<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s defining moment came midway through the second half when Clare were awarded a penalty after Peter Duggan was brought down bearing down on goal. Tony Kelly made no mistake from the spot, firing to the corner of the net to extend the Banner\u2019s lead to six points.<\/p>\n
Limerick refused to give in and slowly reeled Clare back in. Byrnes and O\u2019Connor converted crucial frees before O\u2019Connor\u2019s accuracy from placed balls left just a point between the sides entering the closing stages.<\/p>\n
With the clock deep into stoppage time and Clare appearing set to hold on, Limerick produced one final attack. They broke out from deep inside their own half before Aidan O\u2019Connor finished emphatically to the net, turning the game on its head and sending the Treaty supporters into celebration.<\/p>\n
Clare had one last opportunity to rescue the contest, but they were unable to create the goal chance they desperately needed as Limerick held firm to secure a dramatic two-point victory.<\/p>\n
The result sends Limerick into another All-Ireland final, where they will meet Galway after the Tribesmen\u2019s comprehensive victory over Cork in Saturday\u2019s first semi-final. It also ends Clare\u2019s championship campaign after they came agonisingly close to reaching the decider before Limerick\u2019s stunning late revival.<\/p>\n
Sport on WLR is brought to you by\u00a0Auto Boland Ford.<\/a><\/p>\n For the latest Waterford\u00a0News<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sport<\/a>, tune into WLR News on the hour and download the WLR App for news on demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Limerick book All-Ireland final place after dramatic late turnaround against Clare Limerick will face Galway in the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-534537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534537","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=534537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}