Arsenal Women’s in-form Katie McCabe, believes the moment has come for the Irish women’s national football team to battle with the best of the best and shine. The Ballon d’Or contender was at her best on Friday, scoring a hat-trick and assisting on the other two goals as Ireland defeated Albania 5-1 in the Women’s Nations League. Ireland now have a perfect record in the Nations League.
After the match the dominant McCabe, the hero of the night, spoke to the media, stating that her ambitions as captain of the national team are for them to continue to soar, get better, push to play in the 2025 Euros (lest we forget, they played in the World Cup in the summer), and continue to play well to put their team on the map. She said:
“I want to put Irish football on the map and we’ve done that.
“We’ve girls playing all over the world and in America, it’s fantastic.
“The Irish are able to take part. It’s really nice and I’m enjoying my football. To score a hat-trick is terrific but to score a goal for your country is an unbelievable feeling.
“I am very lucky to have scored three.
“But the goal is the Euros in 2025 and these games are building momentum for that while building a structure and way of playing.
“We are just continuing to build towards that.”
“We showed that in the last camp in the Northern Ireland and Hungary games—we want to be better on the ball. And with that, you will make mistakes.
“It is all part of it. You need to be brave to play those forward passes.
“We showed that we are capable of it and we just need to do it for longer.”
Notably, the versatile Gunner may be playing with an injury. Katie tore a bicep against Bristol City last weekend, so for those who watched her on Friday, she wore a sleeve on her right arm, not for fashion but to protect and aid her arm’s recovery. She admits to the injury:
“It’s not great. I couldn’t take throw-ins. It’s pretty sore; it’s a big tear.”
I hope everything goes well with Katie’s injury; Arsenal Women can’t afford to lose her to injury, especially with the momentum she’s got at the moment. Katie has been nominated for WSL Goal of the Month, alongside Arsenal teammate Cloe Lacasse. Click here to vote for our Gunners!
Ireland will now head to Albania for the reverse fixture on Tuesday night, 31st October. Our Gunners will be back from international break soon, with their next challenge being against Manchester City at Meadow Park.
A very limited number of tickets will be released during Arsenal’s secondary sale on Monday 30th October at 2pm.
Have you got your tickets for our Gunners first game at Meadow Park this season?
Michelle Maxwell
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