Nerves won the Northern Ireland women’s squad in their 4-1 defeat to Norway on Thursday evening, but they can still be proud of their big tournament debut.
That is the view of manager Kenny Shiels and defender Julie Nelson, who made history as her country’s first goalscorer in a major tournament.
Norway were always the favorites to win at St Mary’s Stadium and they took the lead early on, with goals from Julie Blakstad and Frida Maanum after just 13 minutes, before Caroline Graham Hansen’s penalty, awarded by the VAR for handball, gave them 3 -0 yielded. up before the break.
But as the game went on, confidence in Northern Ireland grew and Nelson’s header just after the restart gave them hope for an unlikely comeback.
But it wasn’t to be, as just minutes later Guro Reiten’s low free kick secured a comfortable victory for the dark horses of Euro 2022.
“We were a little nervous in the first 15-20 minutes, our first experience of a major tournament,” Nelson told BBC Sport.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult task. We limited them to few chances in the second half and made ourselves hard to beat. That’s what we have to do.
“It felt like a home game. We are disappointed with the result and the way we conceded. Then we can indulge in the performance.
“I definitely didn’t think I would be on the scoresheet, but it’s an incredible feeling to score Northern Ireland’s first goal in a major tournament. As a defender you don’t expect to score the first goal. I had to do a double take to make sure it went in.”
Northern Ireland was not expected to come from Group A, which also includes host nations England and Austria, but Shiels reiterated that this is all part of the process of improving the national team for the future.
“The score was hard to take, I thought we deserved better than that, but we are three years into this program and it will take ten years to get us into the top 20 in Europe,” said the manager.
“You are not happy when you are beaten 4-1, but there are extenuating circumstances. They were nervous for the first 25-30 minutes.
“If we can keep making progress, we can do it a little faster. We need to get real and understand that this is an upcoming game in Northern Ireland. We’ve created a monster because we’ve grown too fast and are playing against these kinds of teams.
“We matched them in the last hour, they had more territory, but we got one against one and did a lot of good things. We created, were half an hour behind the game and we pinned them back.
“That gives us courage and the girls were fantastic, they gave everything for their country and the fans will be very proud of them. The experience is great for them.”
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