Offside call denies Ireland famous win in Italy

Women’s International friendly 

ITALY 0 

IRELAND 0 

Ireland were a marginal offside call from marking Eileen Gleeson’s first job as permanent manager with a statement win in Italy.

Facing an Italian side ranked 10 places above their 24th position in the world rankings, Leanne Kiernan had the ball in the net with 16 minutes left but the cross from fellow substitute Amber Barrett was deemed to have been a millisecond late for it to count. 

VAR wasn’t available to verify either way.

It was the first game in seven that Ireland didn’t win but this was a step above the six previous matches they won against inferior opposition on the way to winning their Uefa Nations League B group.

The Italians represent the calibre of opponent they’ll now face in the top tier when the draw for the Euro 2025 qualifiers is made on March 5. They’ve a 25% chance of being grouped with the Italians from the second four-team pot as England.

This first friendly of the year illustrated the depth Gleeson has available now that she’s been upgraded from caretaker boss, until their involvement in the Euro series ends anyway.

“The talent pool is getting deeper,” Gleeson noted afterwards. “We’re getting more options, we’ve got some very good young players coming through and more players playing in higher level leagues that are fully professional.

“That performance just shows how this team has really developed. Over the last few years they’ve become hard to beat, but I think in terms of potential, they wanted to express themselves a bit more creatively and play a bit higher up the pitch. 

"I think that they’ve shown that they can do that.”

Already without Denise O’Sullivan and Tyler Toland, who didn’t travel due to injury, they were joined on the