Jess Ziu, like her Republic of Ireland teammates, was glowing at the full-time whistle on Tuesday evening.
The 20-year-old winger had just put in a Player of the Match performance as her country beat Slovakia in their final game of FIFA 2023 World Cup qualifying.
The Girls in Green had already done the hard part five days prior to the win at the NTC Senec, the training centre for the Slovak Football Association – beating Finland 1-0 at the Tallaght Stadium to guarantee them a spot in the play-off.
Another tough match followed, but Ziu and her team-mates once again rose to the occasion, producing a dogged performance to get the three points, which will now see them play a second-round playoff tie – meaning they are potentially one match away from reaching next summer’s World Cup.
Ziu was involved in the only goal of the game, intercepting the ball in midfield before laying it off to Denise O’Sullivan. The eventual goalscorer then sweeped a ball out to Heather Payne, who pulled the ball back for O’Sullivan to dig out a curling effort that perched itself into the bottom corner.
The young Hammer spoke with RTE Sports at full-time, delighted that she and her team-mates had done what they’d set out to do before they joined up for camp at the end of August.
Jess, what an achievement for Ireland to get the win today and secure their place in the second playoff round…
I’m still lost for words to be honest. I think this game was just as important as the Finland game and I think we put in a better performance in this game, but they still made us work very hard for it.
We started off well, put pressure on them and tried to exploit some of their weaknesses down the flanks and from set pieces.
I’m proud to say that I'm playing for my country, never mind be awarded the Player of the Match award, so I’m really grateful for that.
You seemed to really enjoy playing out there today, you seemed to be taking on players quite a lot?
I did enjoy being out there, taking on and beating my opponent is something that I want to add to my game. I started the game at right-wing and then moved further back as the game went on, and I was really happy out there on the flank.
I think from a team perspective, you can see that we’re improving a lot defensively, we’re keeping a lot of clean sheets and we’re scoring goals too.
I’m hopeful that in the future, I can weigh in with some goals of my own too.
Hopefully you’ll be involved in the upcoming play-off match, are you looking forward to it?
I’m hopeful that I’ll have the opportunity to play in the game. I want to get back to West Ham now and start the Barclays Women’s Super League season well and put in a couple of good performances for them.
Then, attention will turn back to Ireland for what will be a massive game!
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