Ireland 1 Finland 0
Rope a dope, Tallaght style. The Lily Agg Effect. Call it what you want, Ireland are in touching distance of the World Cup.
There was no grand design, just a pile of lucky breaks to survive the initial Finnish onslaught before Megan Connolly’s lofted free-kick was headed home by Agg.
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The moment landed on 53 minutes. The previous 52 were pockmarked by Irish error. Then, without warning, Emma Koivisto smashed into Ireland skipper Katie McCabe just inside Finland’s half. Connolly took a swipe, nobody picked up Agg and goalkeeper Tinja-Riikka Korpela was caught in no woman’s land.
Goal. Wildly against the run of play, a goal that drives Ireland into an October playoff to reach Australia and New Zealand next summer.
Thereafter, McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan cast their world class ability across the game. The Aviva Stadium is calling them. Such talent should not be wasted off Broadway.
This night nearly went another way. Finland came to Tallaght in search of an early hammer blow. Ireland’s flat back five leant against the ropes, rigid and nervous, beckoning the visitors on to them as if frozen on the precipice of history.
Marko Saloranta, the under-17 Finnish coach promoted to the top job just four weeks ago, had three sessions to tactically unpick Vera Pauw’s system. Within seconds of kick-off, panic was palpable around the ground as Rian Oling and Jutta Rantala appeared as fluid number 10s behind Linda Sallstrom.
Louise Quinn was putting out fires as Finland could have led 3-0 by half-time but for last-ditch interventions from Megan Campbell and Connolly before McCabe’s goal-line clearance.
Connolly started as a makeshift centre half, the ploy having worked so well away to Sweden, but the Brighton midfielder look clunky in possession. She is anything but.
Not much could be done as Pauw’s system does not account for the flat back four that would have released Connolly to her natural position. Finding plenty of space, Oling and Olga Ahtinen flashed wide passes that had green shirts scrambling. Campbell and Connolly heroics kept it scoreless as Ahtinen lined up a fourth-minute corner that Courtney Brosnan only managed to half punch for Anna Westerlund to shoot straight at McCabe.
Oling was next on target, Brosnan easily gathered, as a livid O’Sullivan began to get a foothold in the match.
Campbell’s three-year absence from the international scene was punctuated by her trademark long throw on 23 minutes finding Quinn’s glancing header as a succession of wasteful corners followed.
McCabe and O’Sullivan began to combine but the collective, mired in preseason, lacked any rhythm. In contrast, the Finns were switched on and seemed destined to score first. Jamie Finn gave Heidi Kollanen far too much latitude down the left wing, as Diane Caldwell half-cleared a cross for Westerlund to clip an effort off Campbell that forced a brilliant one-handed save from Brosnan.
Ruesha Littlejohn pulled up lame before the break, but Agg’s arrival proved timely as the Irish attack began to create chances, the best of which came when Campbell whipped a ball on to O’Sullivan’s head. It barely troubled Korpela.
But the storm had been weathered. The flat back five back became a solid three in the second half as both wing backs pushed high up the field to allow O’Sullivan, Agg and McCabe take a cold grip of midfield.
Curiously pre-match, Pauw implored fans to turn up or pass their ticket to a “neighbour”. Nobody was home. The 6,952 “record attendance” fell someway short of the 7,800 tickets sold for this World Cup qualifier.
The crowd will look after itself Down Under. If they can take the next step.
September 1st and Irish football has a habit of willing the spectacular into existence. Last year it took some Cristiano Ronaldo magic to dampen an epic result on the Algarve, and now this.
Tuesday’s trip to Slovakia matters on the seeding front. Finn will not be involved after picking up her third yellow card of the campaign for lingering too long over a throw-in.
By then the game was flowing in one direction. Nerves evaporated with each delicate interaction between O’Sullivan and McCabe on a night to cherish.
IRELAND: Brosnan (Everton); Finn (Birmingham City), Caldwell (Reading), Quinn (Birmingham City), Connolly (Brighton & Hove Albion), Campbell (Liverpool); Ziu (West Ham United), O’Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), Littlejohn (Aston Villa), McCabe (Arsenal); Payne (Florida State University).
Subs: Agg (London City Lionesses) for Littlejohn (41 mins), Mustaki (Bristol City) for Campbell (76), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City) for Ziu (85).
FINLAND: Korpela (Tottenham Hotspur); Pikkujamsa (KIF Orebro), Westerlund (Aland United), Kuikka (Portland Thorns), Koivisto (Liverpool); Ahtinen (Linkopings), Oling (Rosengard), Summanen (Tottenham Hotspur), Kollanen (KIF Obrebro); Rantala (Vittsjo GIK), Sallstrom (Vittsjo GIK).
Subs: Franssi (Real Sociedad) for Kollanen (67 mins), Danielsson (AIK) for Pikkujamsa (74).
Referee: Stéphanie Frappart (France).
