Republic of Ireland manager Carla Ward says she hopes her players “get the praise they deserve” following their 3-2 win over Poland in Gdansk.
After previous defeats by France and the Netherlands, the victory moves the Irish into third place in Group A2, leapfrogging the Poles whom they host in the return fixture on Saturday [15:00 BST].
Early goals from Emily Murphy and Katie McCabe gave them a dream start and although Poland pulled one back just before the break through Tanja Pawollek, a superb strike by Marissa Sheva gave them breathing space.
Ewa Pajor gave Poland hope with 12 minutes to go and while McCabe missed a penalty to make the points safe, the Republic of Ireland held on for a huge win.
“It was well deserved,” Ward told RTE afterwards.
“I think for 90 minutes we were the better team. I think what we tried to do and hurt them in the spaces that we wanted to, we achieved that.
“[I’m] disappointed with the two goals – we’d like to have kept a clean sheet, but this group of players deserve an awful lot of credit.
“Three games against three top nations – we’ve competed in all three. But to turn the result in tonight, away from home in a tricky place to play, they deserve an awful lot of credit.”
