Carla Ward\u2019s<\/a> side scored eight goals \u2013 five from headers \u2013 at the Astana Arena in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\nAn 8-0 victory in the first leg of a World Cup semi-final playoff keeps Ireland on course to face the winners of Belgium and Poland in a decider next month to qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be front-footed and play with personality in the final third,\u201d said Ward. \u201cWe are showing we are a good side, and good teams can win in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larkin and Mustaki, in particular, ensured that Ward\u2019s understrength starting XI did not miss the rested O\u2019Sullivan, injured Jess Ziu or the suspended McCabe and Marissa Sheva.<\/p>\n
Kyra Carusa brought her international tally to 15 goals, up alongside Troy Parrott, with two headed finishes from Mustaki deliveries into the box.<\/p>\n
Mustaki, now 31, and finally living up to the potential she showed as a younger player before she had to step away from the game to receive treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma. She scored her first international goal after Nazym Ismailova fumbled Larkin\u2019s shot before Emily Murphy hit the rebound off the post for the Nottingham Forest defender to finish from an acute angle.<\/p>\n
![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Z4FJIJEV35475JIT4SPVEUJXEA.jpg\")
Emily Murphy scores Ireland’s fourth goal in Astana. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit nervous stepping into Katie McCabe\u2019s shoes tonight,\u201d Mustaki, the player of the match, told RT\u00c9. \u201cThe girls made it easy for me. We had actually practised early deliveries from out wide throughout the week. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to qualify for Brazil,\u201d she added. \u201cIf we make it through Tuesday we got a big opponent in Belgium or Poland in November. We need to turn the screw again. Three cup finals to get through\u201d<\/p>\n
Any chance of the home team keeping in touch with Ireland was ended by the sending off of Yulia Myasnikova for a foul on Larkin in the 30th minute. Controversially, VAR intervened before Norwegian referee Karoline Marie Jensen showed the Kazakhstan captain a straight red card.<\/p>\n
Ismailova, who was at fault for Ireland\u2019s opening three goals, was replaced with an injury after an innocuous fall 10 minutes before half-time. Kazyna Norbayeva was not much better; she was unable to deny Murphy scoring after Larkin took on four defenders before stinging the reserve goalkeeper\u2019s hands with a shot, that her strike partner followed up.<\/p>\n
Larkin made it 5-0 in first-half injury time.<\/p>\n
The game lacked intensity in the second half as an attack versus defence, training ground feel developed between the Irish professionals and local part-timers. Ward took the opportunity to replace Carusa, Lazio\u2019s Megan Connolly and Murphy with Amber Barrett, Leanne Kiernan and Tyler Toland.<\/p>\n
It made little difference. Kazakhstan crowded the middle, which invited Aoife Mannion and Mustaki to raid down the flanks and cross at will.<\/p>\n
Mannion assisted two second-half goals; her clever crossing invited Jamie Finn to make it 6-0 before Shanade Hopcroft, on debut, made it 7-0 with a nice touch at the front post. Jess Stapleton claimed an eighth in the 90th minute.<\/p>\n
Ward can run her squad for the second leg next Tuesday in Cork when O\u2019Sullivan, McCabe and Sheva are expected to return.<\/p>\n
KAZAKHSTAN: Ismailova (Portnova, 39); Burova, Myasnikova (capt), Nurusheva, Vlassova; Babshuk, Nizamutdinova (Norbayeva, 62), Zhumabaikyzy (Popova, 75); Gaistenova, Bibossynova (Osipova, 75), Turlybekova (Sadykova, 75).<\/p>\n
Red Card: Myasnikova (33).<\/p>\n
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Brosnan; Patten (Hopcroft, 70), Hayes (Nolan, 70), Stapleton; Mannion, Connolly (Toland, 46), Finn, Mustaki; Murphy (Kiernan, 46), Larkin; Carusa (Barrett, 46).<\/p>\n
Referee: Karoline Marie Jensen (Norway).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cup playoff, first leg: Kazakhstan 0 Republic of Ireland 8 (Carusa 7, 28, Mustaki 16, Murphy 44,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18999,42,43,18998,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-649762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-carla-ward","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649762","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=649762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}