It was a big day for the Irish Women’s soccer team with the draw being made in Switzerland for the qualifying stages of the European Championship Finals to be held in the Netherlands in the summer of 2017.
Sue Ronan’s team has been drawn to face Spain, Finland, Portugal and Montenegro with matches taking p[lace between September 2015 and September 2016.
Ireland played Spain in a friendly earlier this month going down 1-0 away from home, though with an equalising goal disallowed in the 83rd minute.
When the sides last met in competitive action, in the qualifying tournament for the 1993 European Championships, both sides won 1-0 away from home. Spain were ranked seventh of the eight top seeds and present a beatable target for the team who will be bolstered by pressure for places coming from a strong under age development programme and the revamped Women’s National League.
Finland and Portugal finished 3rd and 4th respectively in their qualifying groups for the FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer, a tournament in which Spain will be the only one of our group to take part.
Montenegro conceded an average of more than five goals per game in their ill-starred qualifying campaign.
The winners of each group will join the host country in the finals along with the six best runners up and one of the two remaining runners up to be decided by a play off.
