'We wanted to do the country proud, it's devastating' - Ireland boss reacts to play-off heartache

EILEEN GLEESON ADMITTED her Republic of Ireland players were devastated and hurt after their Euro 2025 dreams were dashed by Wales in the second leg of their play-off final.

The Girls in Green crashed to a 3-2 aggregate defeat in the Aviva Stadium after a Hannah Cain penalty in the 49th minute was followed up by Carrie Jones’ breakaway goal on 67 minutes.

Ireland rallied until the 98th minute after Anna Patten – who conceded the earlier spot kick – headed home five minutes from the end of normal time.

Despite the late drama there was no way through the Welsh rearguard. “We wanted to do the country proud, it’s devastating. Overall in the game, we dominated. We had chances in first half that we should have done better with.

“It’s a peno and one break from a long kick when we were too high on one side. We should do better. If you take your chances you come away with a different result,” Gleeson told RTÉ.

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With her contract now at an end, the FAI have a decision to make over her future ahead of the next World Cup qualifying campaign.

“That’s not something I’m going to talk about tonight. We’re here as a team, we lost as a team and we’re going to support ourselves through as a team. We’re going to pick ourselves up tonight and ago again,” she added.

“It’s a blow but we have to go again and look forward to the next big campaign, the World Cup. There is a lot of devastation, disappointment and hurt. We have to build and go again.”

Ireland lacked composure throughout the contest and were fortunate that captain Katie McCabe was not shown a second yellow card in the first half. Gleeson, though, rallied against suggestions they lost their discipline and was not concerned about comments ahead of the game from Welsh boss Rhian Wilkinson about their direct style.

“I don’t think we lost our structure, I think it got a bit feisty. There was a lot of provocation from the Welsh bench and their coaching staff. We had got 11 and we came off at half time regretting the chances. That was the talking point.

“I mean, we had 17 shots. I don’t care what Rhian had to say now or then. We were in control of the first half, trying to keep composure. We were playing OK, we had some chances we should have done better with.

Meanwhile, midfielder Ruesha Littlejohn admitted conceding the penalty early in the second half rattled Ireland and that they just weren’t good enough on the night to earn a place in Switzerland next summer.

“It’s honestly, I think we all thought we were going there but we weren’t good enough and we can only watch,” she told RTÉ.

“We’re devastated. We fell short. Credit to Wales, they took their chances. I thought we played well in the first half with a few good moments but you need to score in these big games or you get punished, and we got punished.

“Honestly, it’s dreadful,” Littlejohn said of the penalty that was awarded after a VAR intervention. “She (Patten) is going up to head the ball and it hits her arm. I don’t know how you jump these days, with your arms by your side? It’s so hard to do in the moment of a game. It’s a tough one for us to take but we just didn’t do enough tonight.

“We gave it our all but if we’re being honest it rattled us a bit. None of us seen it coming and it took a wee bit for us to react and get back to the game plan.”