Four games, zero points, and a sense of deflation were what the Ireland WNT squad were left with as they departed Stockholm earlier this week.
The group to end all groups has not been kind to Eileen Gleeson's side. Arriving at the top level of the game for the very first time, the draw for their League A qualifying group could hardly have been tougher.
This author vividly remembers thinking "God, you'd hate to be in that group" as England, Sweden, and France were drawn together - before realising in horror what was utterly inevitable in the coming seconds.
You would have had to have had lofty expectations of this Ireland WNT if you expected them to take more than a few points from this group, even with how much they have developed and grown in recent years.
However, the qualifying group thus far has perhaps shown that the Ireland team now find themselves in a sort of limbo, as the wait continues for their first points at this top level.
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Ireland WNT find themselves in strange sort of limbo
During last winter's Nations League campaign and earlier this year, Kyra Carusa spoke of Ireland's desire not just to reach the top level of the international game, but to stay there and prove that they belonged there.
After a ruthless opening to their group campaign which saw them lose their openers against France, England, and Sweden, Carusa told us pitchside in Stockholm that the squad were learning from their experiences thus far along that path.
You have to continue to be in these situations...familiarity is a word that I think really stands true to us at this point in terms of making yourself comfortable with being uncomfortable and being in these situations.
It was great, the success we had last season, it gives you confidence and helps you build. I think, ultimately, sustaining this familiarity with being in these bigger moments with these bigger teams is what you need.
I think that our game last week [against Sweden in Dublin] showed that that's paying off in a lot of different ways.
It's always a welcome challenge. I'd always bet on us, this is where we want to be.
Carusa is right. Both games against Sweden showed that Ireland are getting more comfortable at playing at this level and are building in confidence.
However, disappointingly, both ended in defeat.
4 June 2024; Megan Connolly, left, and Katie McCabe of Republic of Ireland after the 2025 UEFA Women's European Championship qualifying match between Sweden and Republic of Ireland at Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
It would be an insult to this Irish team to suggest that they would be happy to merely tick the first box of Carusa's wishlist. They got here on merit and are rising in stature on the continent, but they want to now show that having arrived at this level, they can compete at it.
It would be similarly insulting to have put a weight on expectation on them that they would instantly be on it against three of the world's top six ranked sides.
As Eileen Gleeson said to us pre-game in Stockholm, their three opponents have been facing this level of opposition regularly for years. This is Ireland's very first taste of it. It was only natural that it would take time and, slowly but surely, the performances are becoming more encouraging and fans can live in hope that Ireland could nick a result in Norwich or Cork in the final two group games.
But where does that leave Ireland? Thanks in no small part to their historically difficult group draw, they are now guaranteed to return to League B as the bottom side in this group. Their hopes of qualifying automatically are over, and they will now progress to the play-offs for a second shot at EURO 2025 qualification.
They will be favoured to reach those EUROs through the play-offs, once the draw is again favourable, though they will probably need points from their last two games to secure a solid seeding. And given how they performed in last year's Nations League, they should cruise back to League A during next year's campaign.
Perhaps midfielder Megan Connolly summed it up best when speaking to us in the mixed zone after Tuesday's agonising defeat in Sweden.
Obviously we're playing three teams in the world, it's not always going to look nice. It's not always going to be pretty football when we're trying to go toe-to-toe with these teams. I think we've shown that, slowly, we're trying to implement the right things and we're trying to improve.
I think the level of opponent has jumped massively. [They're in] the top five teams in the world. This is where we want to be, we want to be competing against them.
We've proved that we can compete against teams around us and that we can score goals. That's our level, that's our standard. There's no dropping below that now.
We want to get better, we want to improve, now we're playing the best teams in the world and we have to learn. We have to keep going, we want to go back to a World Cup, we want to go to a EUROs. We have to have these kind of games and have these tough games and these uncomfortable losses to learn. There's a bigger picture out of all of this.
Though they will not have taken it lying down, or had any intention of doing so, Ireland could not reasonably have expected to qualify automatically out of a group containing sides of this calibre. That being said, to be on zero points from four games with relegation assured is a suitably deflating manner in which to enter the summer after the highs of 2023.
Connolly's comments sum up the limbo of sorts which the Ireland WNT now find themselves in. They romped through their Nations League B group last year, scoring 20 goals and conceding just two for a flawless finish. Now, they find themselves in exactly the opposite position in League A.
Ireland have become too good to operate at the level of the countries they would once have considered peers but appear to still be a step or two behind the teams they have joined at the top table.
This conundrum is also neatly summed up by the double-header of games against Sweden. The game in Dublin was their best performance yet in this group, with the return in Stockholm again an improvement on that. But, in the end, they have nothing to show for it - not even a goal. The margins are getting smaller and smaller, but Ireland still have a bit to go yet.
They are not too far away, with Connolly and Ruesha Littlejohn both showing the squad are aware of where they need to improve if they are to keep operating at this level.
After last night's defeat to Sweden, Ruesha Littlejohn gave a frank assessment of where Ireland need to improve#IrelandWNT #COYGIG pic.twitter.com/YIlTsX5hvy
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) June 5, 2024
They now have a few weeks to rest and reflect before they face England at Carrow Road and France on a historic night at Pairc Uí Chaoímh in the final window of this group.
Ireland will be disappointed with how this group have gone but it is clear that this squad is learning from the experience and that they will take those learnings into the play-off drive and any prospective charge at next summer's EUROs.
There may be a feel of drift or limbo to where Ireland are now but this experience will hopefully stand to them in the long run. Patience is needed as they try to climb to heights their opponents scaled years ago. Slowly but surely.
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