IRELAND GOALKEEPER COURTNEY Brosnan says Ireland deserved more than a narrow defeat to France in the opening game of their Euro 2025 qualifying campaign.
Marie-Antoinette Katoto’s fifth-minute tap-in proved to be the only goal of the game at the Stade Saint-Symphorien in Metz, with Brosnan making a string of several impressive saves to leave Ireland in a position from which to find some regret.
That arrived in the 87th minute, when Leanne Kiernan wasted the chance to play in an unmarked Katie McCabe in the penalty area. France, however, are vaunted opponents. They are ranked third in the world and haven’t lost a competitive home game since the 2019 World Cup.
Ireland are in a group of death along with Sweden and England: the latter come to Dublin next Tuesday.
“France are one of the best teams in the world but we pushed at the end and had some chances”, said Brosnan. “To concede so early is frustrating but we responded well. We need to bring the same energy against another tough side in England.
“It’s always disappointing to concede but how you respond is just as important. It’s great that we were able to keep it at 1-0 to push at the end. We could have got something from the game but these things sometimes happen in football.
“Megan [Campbell] coming on with the long throws causes a bit of chaos, Leanne had a good chance at the end, I thought it might have been sneaking in the back post but my angle was bad. We had them under a bit more pressure at the end and we were going for it, so I think we scored a goal.”
Truthfully, the Irish performance was redolent of those flinty defensive displays under Vera Pauw: Ireland again defended diligently in a 5-4-1 and created few goalscoring chances. Brosnan, however, saw evolution in the Irish style.
“We are always growing every time I come into the national team, every camp and every campaign we are trying to push forward and continue to evolve and continue to get better.
“That’s what we have talked about since the World Cup. We don’t want that to be our story and that’s it, we want to keep growing and keep pushing for more as we have the quality of players to do that. We are continuing to move in the right direction but we need to get results, and that’s what we are trying to do.”
Along with her impressive highlight reel, Brosnan also drew the ire of the 17,000-strong Metz crowd by delaying many of her goal kicks: the referee’s patience eventually snapped and Brosnan was booked in the 65th minute. Fair to say she didn’t agree.
“I was trying to tell the referee that I don’t you can be booked for time wasting if you’re losing. That’s what she said though. I said I was trying to best to continue kicking long but whatever, she told me to hurry it along and I tried my best.
“They had a great crowd here I tried not pay too much attention and focus on the gameplan. Do what we can to win the game.”
Ireland are now bottom of the group, after England and Sweden played out a 1-1 draw at Wembley. Brosnan says Ireland won’t have to do anything drastically different to tonight when Sarina Wiegman’s side come to Dublin.
“We know in this group the games are really tough, but the most important thing now is the recovery and the mindset shifts to Tuesday and getting a result against England.
”You’re always approaching games differently based on who the opponent is, our core values and foundation and everything we have been working on stays the same, and you do a bit of tactics and analysis on the other team so that can bring in some new things as well.”
