Eileen Gleeson shuts down talk of future after Aviva agony

A bitterly disappointed Eileen Gleeson would not be drawn on her future in the wake of the Republic of Ireland's gut-wrenching Euro 2025 play-off defeat to Wales.

The visitors booked their ticket to Switzerland next summer with a 2-1 victory (3-2 on aggregate) that devastated the Girls in Green and most of the 25,832 in attendance.

Gleeson's contract with the FAI is now up; it ran until the end of Ireland's involvement in the Euros campaign. That leaves question marks about the association's next move, and what role Gleeson will play - if any - in the 2027 World Cup campaign.

When asked if she expected to sit down with the FAI in the coming days, Gleeson said: "I understand you have an interest in that but I can tell you now, I'm not talking about it tonight, I'm not thinking about it tonight.

"We've got a team that's devastated that we are not going to the Euros and that is really where I’m sitting right now.

"I am not going to get into big development processes here. We have to go again, there is another campaign, there is a World Cup. That's football, you go again, you take the highs, you take the lows, but we always have to go again.

"Women’s football is not standing still globally, it’s not standing still in Ireland. It’s a setback and a major disappointment tonight that we didn’t get that consistent qualification, but we still have to keep moving forward."

Gleeson was critical of how Wales boss Rhian Wilkinson and her backroom staff conducted themselves on the touchline throughout a tense affair. The pumped-up visitors seemed to target Katie McCabe in particular, who was on the receiving end of several robust challenges, responding in kind on a few occasions herself.

"There was a lot of provocation along the sideline from