Eoin Sheahan

The reaction of the players on the pitch at full time was very much, let's chill out here.

Let's not get too carried away.

I wonder, is that with a view to the same opposition coming to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday?

What was going on there?

So was the must not lose mentality present in how Ireland played tonight or actually were they just a better team and they actually attacked that and sort of viewed that as the best form of defence?

We should mention as well for anybody who didn't catch the game that Ireland missed the penalty tonight so Katie McCabe memories of that Ukraine game flooding back she hit the crossbar on that occasion she skied it over the crossbar on this occasion but it was Emily Murphy who was fouled in the box for this she's just been given player of the match and there was no real other contender not to be dismissive of the other players that's just how good Emily Murphy was tonight

I think we're all watching closely at any new player who's come in since the World Cup in 2023, wondering if there's somebody who can, you know, challenge Denise O'Sullivan and Katie McCabe as, you know, a leader in terms of their outright quality in this team.

Do you think Murphy is possibly that person?

Because she picks up...

a load of various positions.

Even if you're just looking at the goals tonight, the first one obviously comes from the left-hand side.

Her assist for Marisa Siva comes from the right-hand side.

So is that a free roll from Carla Ward or what's the instruction there, do you think?

At this juncture now, we've seen a lot of this team under Carla Ward.

It feels that the team maybe has an identity in terms of its work rate and what they expect from themselves at this stage.

In terms of the football we can expect from them, formation, system-wise...

What can we conclude at this stage from the Carla Ward era?

Yeah, like are we saying this is Ireland's best win since the France game in Parc-et-Couivre given it's a Ligue 1 opposition and maybe the Belgium game last year.

You probably have Belgium and Poland on a similar standard I suspect but I guess this kind of felt...

maybe even of a higher importance, just staying in League A, ensuring that you have an easier path to the World Cup when it comes to playoff time.