Ireland thrash Ukraine to keep Paris dream alive

Ireland 8-0 Ukraine

Ireland enjoyed a dominant 8-0 win over Ukraine as they continued their impressive Olympic qualification Pool A campaign in Spain.

Expected to win today, Ireland swept their opponents aside, with seven different goalscorers getting in on the act.

Sarah Torrans opened the scoring in the 19th minute. Niamh Carey added a second goal before half-time, before Hannah McLoughlin, Deirdre Duke, Róisín Upton, Beth Harper, Torrans and Katie Mullan completed the rout.

Following their opening goalless draw with 2023 European silver medallists Belgium in Spain, Ireland are well-set in Pool A ahead of their final game against South Korea on Tuesday, at 6.15pm.

The top two sides in each pool qualify for the semi-finals, with the two finalists and the third-placed team punching their tickets for Paris 2024.

"Scoring the goals today was very pleasing," said Ireland head coach Sean Dancer.

"It's great when the conversion rate of scoring opportunities is high. Scoring goals is a key part of the game and it was very pleasing to see a number of different players get on the scoresheet.

"The build-up play for some of the goals was based on good attacking play and that was another pleasing aspect of today's performance. Our set-pieces and penalty corners worked well today too, but conceding zero goals too, is almost as important as scoring goals."

In Pool B Spain beat Great Britain to make it two wins from two. Canada got back on track with a 3-0 win over Malaysia following their previous 2-0 defeat to Great Britain, while Malaysia had their second defeat against Canada having lost 7-0 to Spain on the opening day of Pool B.

Ireland: Liz Murphy; Beth Harper, Róisín Upton, SarahMcAuley, Hannah Mc Loughlin, Sarah Hawkshaw, Katie Mullan