Ireland WNT play poorly and lose heavily away to Slovenia by four goals to nil

Slovenia 4

Republic of Ireland WNT 0

A nightmare first-half performance from the Republic of Ireland WNT set them up for a 4-0 hammering by Slovenia in the UEFA Women’s Nations League at the Stadion Bonifika in Koper on Tuesday night.

The Girls in Green were 3-0 down at the break through a brace from Lara Prasnikar and a solitary effort by Maja Sternad, and Nina Kajzba completed the rout at the 82nd minute.

It finished as a sobering evening for the squad and new manager Carla Ward, who announced her arrival by overseeing a narrow victory over Turkey last Friday at Tallaght Stadium.

The coach made two changes to the group that started in Dublin with Megan Connolly and Amber Barrett replacing Megan Campbell and Marissa Sheeva, and this rejigged team just settled in when Prasnikar scored in the third minute.

Sternad set that up with a defence splitting through-ball after pouncing on a misplaced Anna Patten pass, and the counter-attacking winger finished neatly passed Courtney Brosnan.

Ireland struggled to establish themselves going forward and their way of playing on the game, Amber Barrett personally embodied this at the 18th minute as a good run into the box by the striker ended with a clean Slovenia challenge that won possession back for the home side.

The second goal went in before the half-hour mark, with Prasnikar flicking in a Kaja Korosec corner at the near post.

There was no reprieve before the break, instead Slovenia made it 3-0 by carving Ireland open and Sternad finished this move from close range by guiding in a low Zara Kramzar pass with 34 minutes on the clock.

Ward reacted to the deficit by bringing on Tyler Toland and Sheva for Heather Payne and Ruesha Littlejohn at the start of the second half.

They immediately injected a sense of pace into the game, and Slovenia dealt with this by buckled down in defence.

Ireland struggled to break through, and when they did a burst of Katie McCabe corners at the 70th minute came to nothing.

Nina Kajzba got the fourth and final goal by picking a spot and firing in from the edge of the box.

The game finished with Denise O’Sullivan hitting the top of the cross bar, an unlucky moment on an otherwise forgetful evening for the Irish.

Slovenia: Zala Mersnik; Izabela Krizaj, Lana Golob, Dominika Conc (c), Kaja Erzen; Lara Prasnikar, Sara Makovec, Kaja Korosec, Zara Kramzar; Maja Sternad, Spela Kolbl.

Subs: Nina Kajzba for Kramzar (62); Korina Janez for Krizaj (71), Mateja Zver for Prasnikar (80).

Republic of Ireland: Courntey Brosnan; Heather Payne, Anna Patten, Megan Connolly, Aoife Mannion; Ruesha Littlejohn, Denise O'Sullivan, Katie McCabe (c); Kyra Carusa, Amber Barrett, Lucy Quinn.

Subs: Tyler Toland for Payne (HT); Marissa Sheva for Littlejohn (HT), Abbie Larkin for Barrett (66) 

Referee: Michalina Diakow (Poland).