Ireland suffer agonising defeat in Sweden as Euro 2025 qualifying campaign remains goalless and winless

They remain scoreless and winless in 2024 and if they cannot stop the bleeding in England, or in Cork against France, their play-off route to Euro 2025 will become far more complicated.

Katie McCabe will amiss Ireland’s return clash with England after picking up her second yellow card in Euro 2025 qualifying.

If that wasn’t agonising enough, the Irish captain then had to watch as Jonna Andersson almost replicated the Tallaght woman’s famous World Cup goal to shatter stout Irish resistance in Stockholm’s Friends Arena.

Magdalena Eriksson claimed the goal with a slight touch off her back, but the concession was needless after 84 minutes of committed resolution in the dark arts of restricting the home side’s ability to play.

Courtney Brosnan remained rooted on her line; Ireland remain rooted at the bottom of their group.

For much of the night here, it was the Swedes who were finding things complicated. They had been caught on the hop by Ireland’s formation switch last Friday and weren’t going to be fooled again.

It took them quite a while to have the last laugh on a grim night for the beautiful game. Ireland weren’t worried about painting pretty pictures, they just wanted to make – and take – a point.

Ireland also had to absorb some harsher lessons from Friday, a more reserved approach here allowed them the novelty of a scoreless first-half in this brutish campaign.

Aside from a Megan Connolly swish from a punched corner midway through the first half that flew through a thicket of legs and wide, they were much more concerned with minding their own house.

Chelsea flyer Johanna Rytting Kaneyrd, fresh from her Friday brace, was their chief outlet and, illustrated by one spectacular victory in a foot race against a flagging McCabe, she was the dominant influence when the game occasionally flashed into life.

Ireland rarely pressed with the fervour of Friday, Kyra Carusa lived on scraps when she wasn’t offside, while Kiernan seemed as capable of causing Jonna Andersson as much trouble as Kaneyrd was inflicting on Ireland’s captain. Kiernan’s bloody nose reflected a contest where physical destruction outweighed artistic creation.

Louise Quinn was withdrawn before half-time after seeming to over-stretch when dispossessing the quiet Kosovare Asslani.

She had also allowed Fridolina Rolfo to negotiate too much space before smacking a shot which Brosnan did well to punch over the bar.

Rolfo had also earlier headed over when Kaneyrd out-flanked McCabe. Connolly’s shot may have suggested an untruth, that the game had ebb and flow – there was neither.

A Mexican wave illustrated how the longueurs were affecting the crowd, aside from their constantly effervescent singing section who were more in tune than their team.

Ireland’s tactics, though necessarily crude given the gulf in class, had worked perfectly, but they needed legs to complete the task and the arrival of Jessie Stapleton and Abbie Larkin before the hour renewed their zeal.

Nobody doubted their heart, yet nobody expected them to lose their heads when it mattered most.

Sweden: Musovic; Lundkvist, Eriksson, Andersson, Sembrant; Angeldal (Bennison 69), Aslani (capt) (Jakobssen 68), Zigotti Olme; Rytting Kaneyrd (Hammerlund 82), Janogy (Kafaji 69), Rolfo.

Ireland: Brosnan; Ziu (Lucy Quinn 79), Hayes, Louise Quinn (Patten 42), Mannion, McCabe (capt); Connolly, Littlejohn (Stapleton 58), Agg (Larkin 58); Kiernan (Barrett 79), Carusa.

Referee: Alina Pesu (Romania).