FC Irlande Ladies III makes a journey to the remote Forest to play a Saturday match against Maccabi Brussels.

The match starts, and it takes 6 minutes for Maccabi to open the scoring. Maccabi’s second goal arrives one minute later. Taking advantage of the favourable moment, Maccabi finds the net one more time. By 12’, the home team is already leading 3-0 and seems to have secured the match. After this disastrous start, FCI has the strength to react and immediately finds a way into the match thanks to El, who converts a pass from Zoe. This goal makes FCI realise that the game is not over and that scoring more is possible. At 21’, El returns the favour to Zoe and provides her with the assist for her first goal of the day. Five minutes pass, and Zoe scores again, bringing the result back to a tie. Maccabi is stunned, and FCI takes control of the match. An eventful first half ends 3-3.

Galvanised by the first half remuntada, FCI only needs three minutes to score the overtaking goal. Viktorija, launched on the left wing by Anna’s pass, finds an impressive angle to edge out the goalie. Maccabi seems unable to hurt FCI again, but a penalty granted in its favour gives the home team the possibility to erase all FCI’s efforts. However, Ana denies the shot, maintaining the result unchanged and her perfect record on penalties this season. The referee whistles another penalty, this time for FCI. The goalie gets the better of the striker again. Both teams are giving their all: FCI to secure the match, Maccabi to equalise. The most incredible of these scoring chances is on Viktorija’s feet, who manages to hit both posts with a single shot. No more goals for the two teams, and the match finishes 4-3 for FCI.

At 17:42, it would have been unthinkable to write about an FCI victory. It was a thrilling match with lots of emotions and scoring opportunities from both sides. At the end, the victory went to the team that was able to be more consistent, focused, and clinical in front of the goal.

On a sunny and smoggy day with Brussels air quality at an all time low, the seconds had a chance to salvage some pride after securing safety in the previous game.

From the get go the boys were on it, keeping the ball, taking their time, and picking their passes. Early highlights included Papi marauding up the pitch fearlessly, breaking the lines from defence. Matteo also picking the right passes finding Neil and the midfield.

The opposition were organised at the back, but not posing a threat or taking control of the ball. FC Irlande strung together some beautiful passing plays, sometimes through benji and garret on the right side and some times Ryan and Ewan on the left. Picking out lolo’s feet and distributing the ball through Nick and lore. The fist half ended all square, but only because max kept out a good number of shots from counter attack breakaways.

The second half came and we started strong again, Andreas coming in for Nick, and George eventually for jaret. We had a coupla shots on target, from lolo and Andreas who made an instant impact.

Tension was building as it remained 0-0 in to the final quarter. Although we lost the ball countless times in dangerous positions during the game, it was unfortunately Mr Self, playing in his own backyard, newly wed wife watching from the sideline, who decided to “go walkabout” as we say down under, drifting inside from left back, and kindly setting up the opposition attackers. You cannot fault the generosity. Unfortunately they stole and away and slotted home, max flailing helplessly.

The boys finishing strong, with energy going forward in the last 10 mins, including Jimmy gassing himself out after 2 sprints back from injury.

The game ended 1-0 but we can hold our heads high. Good play all round, strong in possession. Time to eat meat, drink piss and go again next week.

MOTM: Papi and Max 🙏🏼

After a few weeks without league football and a victorious friendly, FC Irlande Ladies III is back for a home game against RCC Waterloo.

Waterloo starts the match in possession of the ball, but FCI takes control of the game immediately. Unlike the previous matches, the team is focused from the first minutes and effectively stops Waterloo from creating any attacking action. FCI easily finds space between the Waterloo lines, coming close to scoring on multiple occasions. This sustained attacking pressure results in two goals by Zoe, scored at 19’ and 35’. After six minutes, unexpectedly, Waterloo scores the goal that could reopen the match. This goal closed the first half with a 2-1 result.

FCI enters the pitch for the second half confident in its superiority and ability to score more. Three minutes in, Marina converted a penalty, earned by Zoe. One minute later, Zoe finds the back of the net for her second hat-trick of the season. Nelly then opened her account for the match and for FCI. FCI keeps on attacking without giving Waterloo a chance to be dangerous in the offensive phase. Once Viktorija comes on to the pitch, motivated to put her name also on the scoresheet, she scores the sixth and seventh goals of the game in two minutes. Before the final whistle, Marina scores two more goals, completing her first hat-trick of the season. The match ends with an incredible 9-1.

This match report cannot contain all the scoring chances we had and cannot convey how much we dominated during the entire match. We scored so many goals that it was impossible to track all the assists. This impressive win comes at the right moment in the season, boosting our morale and energy for the next matches after the last disappointing results.