Amber Barrett scored surely the most important goal in the history of the Republic of Ireland’s women’s team to secure Vera Pauw’s impressive side a place in the finals of their first major tournament.
Thanks to Barrett’s stellar second-half finish the underdogs are heading to Australia and New Zealand for next summer’s World Cup finals, leaving Scotland, and Caroline Weir especially, reflecting on what might have been.
Barrett, a trainee school teacher turned professional striker for Germany’s Turbine Potsdam, secured a major upset as the favourites never recovered from Weir’s first half penalty miss and ended up losing this European playoff final at a somewhat stunned Hampden Park.
Two heavyweight managers – in the strictly metaphorical sense – patrolled adjacent technical areas. While Scotland’s Spanish coach Pedro Martínez Losa was previously in charge of Arsenal and Bordeaux, Pauw was manager of the home side from 1998-2004.