Ireland’s Euro 2025 dreams are over after a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat to Wales on Tuesday night.
The devastation was clear on the faces of the Ireland players after the fulltime whistle blew.
And it was clear in the voice of Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson when speaking to RTÉ after the game.
Her chief goal in succeeding Vera Pauw was to guide Ireland to qualification for these Euros. Ireland fell at the final hurdle and Gleeson’s contract as Ireland manager is now up.
Her future is uncertain but as you’d expect. her thoughts tonight were with her players.
“We wanted to do the country proud, we wanted to get to Euro 2025 and we haven’t… It’s devastating,” Gleeson reflected.
“Overall, we dominated, 17 shots to six. We had chances in the first half we should have done a lot better with and goals win games.
“[Wales’ goals were] a peno and one break from a long kick where we were probably a little bit too high on one side.
“We should do better in those moments but if you take your chances then you come away with a different result.”
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Tense interview with Eileen Gleeson and Tony O’Donoghue
It was a combative interview wherein Gleeson batted back criticism from Wales manager Rhian Wilkinson about Ireland’s direct style of play.
Asked about her future by Tony O’Donoghue, Gleeson refused to be drawn with her contract currently set to finish up now the campaign has finished.
It’s not something I’m going to talk about tonight.
“We’re here as a team, we’ve lost as a team and we’re going to support ourselves through it as a team.”
Republic of Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson regrets the missed chances in front of goal in the first half and refuses to answer questions about whether she’ll be remaining as manager for the next campaign
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O’Donoghue followed up in asking her about the fact that her previous role as the FAI’s head of women and girls football would be of interest to her – a role which she held while Vera Pauw was in charge.
That role is now held by Hannah Dingley.
‘I think it was you that mentioned it, not me,” Gleeson responded when O’Donoghue claimed she had expressed an interest in returning to the role.
“I’m not talking about anything else, other than the game tonight. We’re going to pick ourselves up and we’ll go again.”