RCS Nivellois A

On Sunday, 26 January, after more than one month, FC Irlande Ladies III returns to play a home game, this time against RCS Nivellois.

For this game, FCI wants to recreate the solidity of last week’s performance against Wolves. For the first part of the first half, FCI controls Nivelles and closes all the spaces not allowing the opponent to score. However, the excellent ball circulation of Nivelles eventually breaks the FCI wall: starting from the wing, the opponent finds the right passes to arrive at the penalty area and score from a favourable position at the 18’. A few minutes later, Nivelles’ striker finds herself all alone in front of Marina who with a miraculous save maintains the match on the result of 1-0. And with this result the first half ends.

FCI starts the second half wanting to continue the good defensive performance of the first part of the match and find some goal-scoring chances. But FCI cannot build enough to worry Nivelles’ defence and goalkeeper. On the other hand, Nivelles puts even more determination and intensity into scoring the goals that would close the match. And they do so at the 66’, following a corner kick and at the 84’ with a magnificent free-kick. This free-kick closes the match on the result of 3-0.

The intent was to fight to obtain the same result as last week, however, this could have required a level of perfection that was hardly achievable. The way Nivelles plays created problems for us to defend, creating more space to arrive in front of the goal and more confusion. The head should be now on the crucial matches that are ahead of us.

Player of the match: Marina

The road to the match against RCS Nivellois was long. Not only due to the traffic jam on the way out from Brussels but also due to a series of unfortunate events that characterised FCI’s week between absences, injuries and a burning question: “Who is going to be the goalkeeper?”.

Nivellois starts the match with extraordinary intensity and aggressiveness, deploying on the halfway line all the offensive players ready to conquer the ball after FCI’s kick-off. Nivellois’ tactic is immediately effective and at 5’ wins a penalty that is converted into a goal. At 18’, Nivellois doubles the score with a long-range goal. During the first half, FCI has the only real scoring opportunity of its match. Sandra finds space at the edge of the penalty area, and tries the shot but, despite some difficulties, the opponent’s goalie manages to stop it. With each passing minute, FCI controls Nivellois’ attacks better but struggles to create interesting ball and play moves.

Nivellois does not decrease its playing intensity and, after less than 10 minutes in the second half, scores the goal of 3-0 with another long-range shot. At 75’, Nivellois finds the fourth and last goal of the match. Despite a better-played second half, FCI does not have any relevant goal-scoring opportunities. The referee whistles the end with the result of 4-0.

This was not the match we thought we would have played in Nivelles. Before this game and based on Nivellois’ previous results, we expected to play against a team at our level and this should have been one of those matches where we could have brought some points home. The reality was that Nivellois had drastically improved compared to last season becoming a team with excellent ball control and intensity and with a player, the 99, that drove our defence and midfield crazy. After this game, we received confirmation of how high the level of this year’s league is and how much we need to work to stay up.

Player of the match: Mariana