Republic of Ireland players did me proud, says Eileen Gleeson after Italy draw
Leanne Kiernan nearly had a winning goal for the Republic against Italy
Eileen Gleeson hailed her Irish team after a creditable draw in Italy that may have ended her 100 per cent winning record but bookmarked a performance that bodes positively for the daunting Nations League A campaign.
“That was a really positive performance, I’m really proud of the girls,” said the Dubliner, who was appointed permanent manager in December after six successive Nations League B wins as caretaker boss.
“We went toe to toe with them at times. We dealt well with their possession well, they had a couple of chances, we had a couple of chances.
“One second off and we would have had the ball in the back of the net,” she said, referring to Leanne Kiernan’s fine finish to a sweeping Irish move that was ruled out for offside in the second half.
“It was very tight. But the encouraging thing was that we made the chance with a great move and it was finished off.
“We changed things this week. We played a different system with a back four. We changed a few of the movements.
“We put Jessie Stapleton in a six and we’re promoting adaptability and I think the girls did that tonight against a very good Italian side and I thought we held our own.
“That was the plan, to press them high from the start. You can have a back three or a back four, it doesn’t mean we’re going to be static, that we’re not going to get Heather Payne forward or Katie McCabe forward in different moments of the game and when the ball is in different areas of the pitch. We worked on all that this week and to be fair the girls had a right go at it.”
Ireland’s Kyra Carusa with Aurora Galli of Italy
While the night marked a new campaign, it also marked the rehabilitation of a host of
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