Tom Garry was at Carrow Road. His verdict is in, and here it is! Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night. Sarina Wiegman speaks to ITV. “Happy with the result … we started really well … we scored an incredible goal … the best goals are the goals with many players … we created a lot of chances but should have played more in the pockets … we were sloppy at moments too … we could have put it to bed … of course I was very frustrated about their goal … Ireland tried to push a little higher but they didn’t do a lot different … we kept playing short … Sweden is going to be a totally different game … today the team was really aggressive … at times you have to drop a little deeper … we will get ready for that … we always know what we want to do better in the next game.” It’s full time in Dijon, where France have beaten Sweden 2-1. Midway through the second half, Josefine Rybrink equalised Sakina Karchaoui’s first-half goal, but Marie-Antoinette Katoto reclaimed the lead for Les Bleues, who have won Group A3 as a result. Tonight’s results mean England are now second in the pool, and will make it to Switzerland next summer with a point in Gothenburg on Tuesday. Should England slip up, there’s the safety net of the play-offs. France P5 W4 D0 L1 F7 A4 Pts 12 England P5 W3 D1 L1 F8 A5 Pts 10 Sweden P5 W2 D1 L2 F6 A4 Pts 7 Republic of Ireland P5 W0 D0 L5 F1 A9 Pts 0 Jess Park speaks to ITV. “Job’s done … we’ve got the three points … obviously disappointed to have conceded that last goal but we had lots of opportunities … on the whole we played well … I loved every second … a real good game tonight … I’m always ready … we’re so focused [on the upcoming Sweden game] … we’ve been in prep camps … working hard … we just want to get three points.” England were the stronger and better side for the first 20 minutes, and the last 30 … but in between Eileen Gleeson’s impromptu mid-game tactical pow-wow and Courtney Brosnan and Niamh Fahey’s brain-freeze for the England penalty, Ireland gave as good as they got. On another night, perhaps they’d have got something more out of this match than just a consolation goal, though at least that ends that particular drought. It’s now six defeats in a row for Na cailíní i nglas, though. As for England, they were sometimes scintillating in attack, sometimes sloppy in defence, the same mixed bag they’ve been all Group A3 campaign. But they’re now one point away from Euro 2025 qualification, with the safety net of the play-offs should things go wrong in Sweden, so there should be plenty of hope and scope to make the necessary tweaks. Everyone in their own way with some frustrations, but also some reasons to be happy, tonight. FULL TIME: England 2-1 Ireland That’s the last act of the evening! England get their win; Ireland break their long goal drought. Both they, and the half-time sub Russell, deserved that consolation. GOAL! England 2-1 Ireland (Russell 90+4) Campbell launches a long throw in from the right. Quinn, on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box, flicks a header back into the mixer. Hayes, on the penalty spot, heads down for Russell who, on the edge of the six-yard box, swivels and hooks home! 90 min +3: Kiernan turns on the jets and makes to power her way clear down the inside-right channel, with England light at the back. Greenwood comes across and puts a stop to her gallop with an outrageously well-timed slide tackle. But from the resulting throw … 90 min +2: Beever-Jones busies herself down the left and rolls a tempting pass across the face of the box for Stanway, who leans back and hoicks well over the bar. She smiles widely anyway, knowing the three points are in the bag. 90 min +1: Charles advances down the left and curls a cross in for Kelly, who tries to steer a shot across Brosnan and towards the top right. Wide. A waste of a good chance, but it’s not going to matter. 90 min: There will be four additional minutes. 89 min: Another England debutant, Beever-Jones, replaces Hemp. 88 min: Quinn comes on for Fahey. 86 min: There’s not a whole lot going on right now. The crowd entertain themselves with their favourite Neil Diamond song, Forever In Blue Jeans Sweet Caroline. 84 min: A Campbell long throw! But it’s a big anti-climax, because there’s not enough room for her to take a proper run-up, and even though she bends her run before flinging long, it’s easily cleared. 83 min: It’s still raining in Norfolk, by the way. Eileen Gleeson on the touchline, soaked through, frantically issuing tactical advice. Sarina Wiegman by contrast kicking back under the dugout roof, relaxed and bone dry. 81 min: Kiernan’s right-wing cross is deflected out for a corner. Campbell curls it in. Half cleared. Campbell tries again. Bright absolutely batters a header clear, and Naz threatens to scamper off on the counter. Kiernan is forced to take a booking for the team. 79 min: Campbell pearls a glorious pass down the inside-left to release Russell, but the defence pushes up to catch the attacker offside. 78 min: Ireland knock it around the midfield, but there’s a sense that England are more than happy to let them do so. The hosts sit back and keep their shape. 77 min: Walsh dinks in from the left. Kelly attempts to steer a clever looping header back towards the top-left corner, but doesn’t get quite enough purchase on it and it’s an easy claim for Brosnan. 75 min: Hemp gives up possession 30 yards from the England goal. O’Sullivan strides into space and lines up a shot, but takes one step too many and that allows Greenwood to block the eventual effort. What an opportunity to score Ireland’s first goal of 2024. 74 min: It’s so nearly a dream start to Naz’s England career. Brosnan once again faffs around with the ball at her feet, and this time she’s closed down. Naz blocks her eventual clearance and the keeper is very fortunate the ball doesn’t either rebound into the net or sit up for Naz to convert. Ireland eventually clear their lines, but goodness, they’re not making life easy for themselves when playing out from the back. 73 min: Both players are thankfully fine to continue. 72 min: Le Tissier and Kiernan contest a high ball but only succeed in heading each other. On come the medical staff to make sure everyone’s fine. 71 min: Russo’s race is run. Naz comes on for her England debut. 69 min: In other touchline-infused news, full-time Ireland captain Katie McCabe, suspended tonight, is pictured in the dugout looking throughly frustrated. 67 min: Campbell comes on for Littlejohn. Delapesque entertainment ahoy! 66 min: Le Tissier wedges a lovely pass down the right and nearly releases Kelly. Patten comes across to intercept and clear just in time. Fine play all round. 64 min: Russell has looked lively since coming on at the break. She dips a shoulder in the hope of making space to shoot on the edge of the D, but can’t quite sort her feet out. Then she chases a long pass down the left, preparing to romp into acres of space behind the English defence. But the flag pops up for offside. 62 min: Kelly comes on for Mead. 61 min: Have to say, Brosnan won’t be too happy with her role in the penalty either. She gave Fahey a bit of a hospital pass across the face of the box. Both Irish players will on reflection think they should have blootered upfield, or into touch, and asked questions later. But here we are. 59 min: That was so unnecessary, and such a shame for Ireland, who were looking comfortable in the game and harbouring hopes of finding an equaliser. But now they’re in all sorts of bother. Russell tries to hit back immediately with a power dribble down the inside-right, but the angle gets tight quickly and she can’t get a shot away. GOAL! England 2-0 Ireland (Stanway 57 pen) Stanway pops the present on the spot, opens her body, sends the keeper the wrong way, and dispatches the gift into the right-hand side of the net. What a surprise treat! Penalty for England! 55 min: This is a complete farce. Fahey faffs around with the ball at her feet, facing her own goal, 25 yards out. Hemp sniffs out danger and, coming from behind, nicks the ball away. Hemp prepares to shoot only to be tugged back by Fahey, who concedes a penalty and is booked. 54 min: Ireland are looking extremely comfortable right now. Just no cutting edge in the final third. That first goal against England in official Uefa competition still to come. 52 min: Park teases a low diagonal cross in from the right. Russo is this close to poking home at the far stick. Another coat of polish to her boots would have probably made the difference. 51 min: Mead goes crashing into an advertising hoarding. Ooyah, oof. A proper whack with a sickening soundtrack to boot. Thankfully she’s made of strong stuff and up and about again quickly enough. Thank goodness this is being played at Carrow Road and not, in some weird time-bending exercise, at erstwhile Norwich City home The Nest, with its pitchside 50-foot high concrete retaining wall. 49 min: More of the scrappy stuff. England are struggling to keep hold of the ball. 47 min: Russo and Hemp connect down the right. Hemp tries to cut back for the latter … or was the intention to find Stanway? Whatever, the England players get in each other’s road and Ireland can clear. Ireland get the second half underway. England have made a double change at the back: Bright and Charles come on for Williamson and Carter. Ireland have made two changes too, but their new look is further upfield: Russell and Kiernan come on for Murphy and Barrett. Half-time entertainment. Other England teams are available, as Jonathan Liew reports. In the other game in Group A3, France are leading Sweden 1-0. Sakina Karchaoui with the goal. Should that result stay the same, France will win the group … and providing England avoid defeat tonight, they’d only need a draw in Sweden on Tuesday to book their place at Euro 2025. HALF TIME: England 1-0 Ireland England flew out of the blocks and, for a while, looked in the mood to run up a cricket score. Then Courtney Brosnan required some treatment, Eileen Gleeson took the opportunity to give her charges the what-for, and it’s been a tight battle ever since. Sarina Wiegman’s turn to sort a few things out, though at least her team still have the lead. 45 min: There will be one additional minute. The exact length of that Courtney Brosnan injury and concomitant team-talk! 44 min: Mannion crosses from the right. Nobody in green in the centre. Ireland still haven’t scored in 2024; a more confident team would surely have punished England by now. 43 min: England are getting really careless at the back. Stanway and Walsh take turns to needlessly give up possession on the edge of their own box; on both occasions they’re lucky their opponent is isolated and there are plenty of team-mates around to swarm. 41 min: The lively Bennett takes on Greenwood down the right and earns a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece. 39 min: More scrappy stuff. England don’t need to hear the half-time whistle, exactly, but the way the last 20 minutes have gone, they could probably do with a tactical pow-wow of their own. 37 min: Stanway tries to relocate that mojo, clipping a pass down the inside-right channel that doesn’t quite find Mead. We’re now in the territory of having to say “that’s a little better” about England. How quickly things can shift. 36 min: O’Sullivan is this close to sending Barrett clear down the middle with a long rake. Williamson saves England by intercepting and clearing. Then a little later, Hampton goes walkabout and is nearly closed down by Barrett. England have totally misplaced their early mojo. 34 min: The first sustained spell of possession for Ireland. They’ve been a completely different team since Eileen Gleeson told them what’s what. 32 min: … and Ireland are looking more confident in midfield, where they’re forcing England into the odd mistake. Nothing that’s yet developed into bother for the hosts closer to their goal, though. 30 min: Russo powers her way down the left and cuts back for Mead, who does her best to dance her way into a shooting position. But it’s a crowded box and there’s no hope. England are finding things a little bit more difficult now. 29 min: It’s pretty scrappy at the moment. Ireland will be happy enough with the state of the game, as they’ve drawn quite a bit of England’s sting. That mid-game team-talk looks to have done the trick. 27 min: Now it’s Stanway’s turn to spin and be skittled by Littlejohn. Play is waved on as England still have possession, and they probe this way and that, all across Ireland’s final third. No way through at the moment. 25 min: Russo turns into space, 35 yards from goal, and is dragged back by the shoulder by Littlejohn, who is pretty fortunate not to go into the book. That was cynical. Subtle but cynical. 23 min: Greenwood nearly offers Ireland that special something, rolling a hospital pass out of defence towards Park. Murphy snaffles possession and sashays forward, but she’s caught between shooting and passing, and the chance goes begging. Sloppy from England. 21 min: Murphy probes down the right. She drops a shoulder to get past Greenwood but Hampton claims her low cross. A little better from Ireland, who need something, anything. 20 min: Pep talk over, Brosnan is fine to continue. File that one under taking some medical attention for the team. 19 min: Brosnan goes down, requiring some treatment. Ireland coach Eileen Gleeson calls everyone else to the touchline, taking the opportunity to issue some beneficial tactical advice. 18 min: Park starts another attack, drifting down the middle and slipping Le Tissier away on the right. Le Tissier crosses; Russo eyebrows wide left from ten yards. 17 min: Park is everywhere, and now she slips a pass to her left for Mead, who rasps a shot straight at Brosnan. Ireland’s keeper has made several big stops already. 16 min: Stanway’s clever reverse pass down the right nearly releases Le Tissier, but Patten does well to cover. Ireland being run ragged at the moment. 14 min: … and now Carter fizzes a shot straight at Brosnan from a tight angle on the right. A second goal is beginning to feel no more than a matter of time. 13 min: England are piling on the pressure. Hayes slices a clearance straight to Mead, who can’t get a first-time shot away. The goal was gaping. Then Mead is teed up by Park; she curls over the bar from the left-hand edge of the D. 11 min: A lovely open, entertaining feel to this game. More, please! On a similar tip, here’s Charles Antaki on that opening goal: “Gorgeous. Fluid, decisive, smooth - and early. Hope the others are watching.” 9 min: Speculative efforts at both ends. Barrett, popping up on the right this time, thumps a shot straight at Hampton from 25 yards. The keeper claims. Then Park attempts a cheeky long-range floater from distance out on the England left. Brosnan, backtracking frantically, tips over the bar, but the whistle had gone for a handball earlier in the move, so it’s all academic. 7 min: That’s Russo’s third goal of this Group A3 campaign. And it’s not long before Stanway nearly scores her second of it. She barrels down the middle of the park and prepares to shoot from the edge of the D, only for Fahey to arrive out of nowhere and toe-poke the ball away from her, so Brosnan can collect. GOAL! England 1-0 Ireland (Russo 5) This is a lovely team goal. Walsh and Stanway combine crisply to shuttle the ball in from the right flank. Mead takes up possession in the pocket, and wedges a delightful defence-splitting dink down the inside-right channel to release Russo, who rounds Brosnan on the outside before slotting. 3 min: A long ball down the Irish left for Barrett to chase. A lot of space over there, and Mannion is free in the middle to find, but Barrett mistimes her run and the flag pops up for offside. She throws her head back in irritation with herself. 2 min: Williamson rakes a glorious long diagonal pass towards Le Tissier on the right flank, but there’s nobody in the middle to find and the England right-back is forced to turn tail. Shame: what an assist to the assist that Williamson pass could have been. Both sets of players take the knee of equality, love and respect, then England get the ball rolling. The rain keeps falling. The teams are out! A full house at Carrow Road brings the noise as both sets of players take to the pitch. The atmosphere more than makes up for a miserable rainy Norfolk night. England in white, Ireland in green. We’ll be off once the anthems are sung, coins tossed and pleasantries exchanged. England boss Sarina Wiegman speaks to ITV. “Maya Le Tissier is fit and has done really well in training sessions and we have trained for a couple of weeks now … she showed so many good things … we think this is the right moment … Jess Park must make sure she is open in the pockets … create things in their half of the pitch … have an impact on our attacking game … we are definitely not complacent … this group is really tough … this is a very important game and Tuesday too … it’s very close … Ireland are doing well … we had a very good first half against them … we scored two goals and could have scored maybe a little more … but the second half they were really pushing and were very opportunistic … we were struggling a bit with that … so we really want to stay out of that and be really tight on the ball.” How the other games in England’s topsy-turvy Group A3 campaign have panned out. Recent form doesn’t favour the Republic either. While England’s home record in the group has so far been poor – the aforementioned draw with Sweden and the defeat to France – they’ve still won six of their last eight games. Ireland however are on a shocking five-game losing streak, and they’ve not scored a goal all calendar year. That’s some drop-off from 2023, which culminated in six straight wins to the cumulative total of 20-2 and earned them promotion to League A of the Nations League. Here’s what happened when the teams met in Dublin back in April. It was the latest defeat for Ireland in an historical sequence that doesn’t augur well for them: the fifth in five matches officially recognised by Uefa, in which they’ve shipped 19 goals while not once finding the net themselves. The bright side: Eileen Gleeson’s team have a chance to write a new page of the history book tonight. England make three changes to their starting XI from the side sent out to beat France 2-1 in Saint-Étienne last month. Alex Greenwood, Jess Park and Maya Le Tissier are in; Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright and Ella Toone drop to the bench. Ireland make five changes to their first XI after the 1-0 defeat in Sweden. Denise O’Sullivan, Niamh Fahey, Amber Barrett, Anna Patten and Emily Murphy step up; Louise Quinn, Megan Connolly and Leanne Kiernan drop to the bench, Kyra Carusa is injured, and captain Katie McCabe is suspended. O’Sullivan takes receipt of the armband usually worn by McCabe. The teams England: Hampton, Le Tissier, Williamson, Greenwood, Carter, Stanway, Walsh, Park, Hemp, Russo, Mead. Subs: Bronze, Earps, Toone, Bright, Kelly, Beever-Jones, Clinton, Charles, Naz, Keating, Morgan, Turner. Republic of Ireland: Brosnan, Mannion, Hayes, Fahey, Patten, Littlejohn, Murphy, O’Sullivan, Agg, Barrett, Ziu. Subs: Moloney, Whitehouse, Stapleton, Campbell, Quinn, Connolly, Russell, Toland, Sheva, Larkin, Kiernan, Atkinson. Referee: Catarina Campos (Portugal). Preamble The reigning European champions England haven’t been their usual commanding selves in Group A3 qualification as they fight for the right to defend their trophy in Switzerland next summer. They’re currently third in the group … France P4 W3 D0 L1 F5 A3 Pts 9 Sweden P4 W2 D1 L1 F5 A2 Pts 7 England P4 W2 D1 L1 F4 A2 Pts 7 Republic of Ireland P4 W0 D0 L4 F0 A7 Pts 0 … behind Sweden on goal difference, after a stuttering start which saw them draw with the Swedes at Wembley and lose to France in Newcastle. But Sarina Wiegman’s side wrested back the momentum with a bounce-back victory in Saint-Étienne last month, and their fate is now in their own hands. If they win tonight – which they should, against an Irish team yet to find the net, never mind earn a point, in four matches – victory in Sweden next Tuesday will guarantee them a spot in the finals. Should the French beat the Swedes in Dijon this evening, a point will do for the Lionesses in Gothenburg next week. But fail to do that, and it’s the play-offs for England. First things first, though, and that’s this evening’s showdown with the Republic of Ireland in Norwich. “We want to control the game a little more than we did the last time we played against them,” says Wiegman, ominous news for the visitors, who were dispatched efficiently enough in Dublin back in April, though Ireland’s Aoife Mannion, fresh from winning the FA Cup with Manchester United, counters: “We don’t want to concede and we want to pick up a result.” Kick-off is at 8pm BST. It’s on!