Ireland delight as Amber Barrett sends them to World Cup with Scotland win

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.

During that tenure, the Dutchwoman, who has also managed the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa and Houston Dash, went beyond the call of duty to help ensure women’s football started to be taken seriously north of Hadrian’s Wall.

If Pauw relished this return to her former Hampden habitat with a side hoping to qualify for their first major tournament, Martínez Losa was planning to “inspire a generation” by guiding his side to their second successive World Cup finals.

This ambition suffered a setback in the 14th minute when, having secured a handball penalty awarded against Niamh Fahey, Caroline Weir saw her spot-kick parried clear by Courtney Brosnan. The goalkeeper did extremely well but Weir, whose bright interchange with Fiona Brown had landed Fahey in trouble, must still have been disappointed