AMBER Barrett played an hour last night as the Republic of Ireland lost 1-0 to Denmark in an international friendly.
An early goal by Nicoline Sorensen proved the only difference at Tallaght Stadium.
Barrett started for the Girls in Green and played 61 minutes before being replaced by Rianna Jarrett.
Denmark are ranked 14th in the world and Ireland manager Vera Pauw was pleased with the application of her team.
“It was great to get Denmark here,” said Pauw.”
“They are so powerful and so mobile, and we have learned so much from it.
“In the first half, we could not get it together in midfield, so we brought some clips into the dressing room that the video analyst had identified and that immediately helped.
“It shows how coachable they are and how they understood from two little clips that they could see what the problem was.”
Sorensen’s ninth-minute goal opened the scoring and Ireland had their moments; not least when captain Katie McCabe rattled the crossbar with a second-half thunderbolt.
Pauw said: “They were getting sharper and sharper as the game was going on, and they felt that they could play against them.
“I’m especially proud that we are not just kicking the ball away, it only happened two times in the first half and maybe at the end of the second a few [times]. But they are really trying to keep the ball to build up in the way that we discussed and the way that we train.
“I am very proud that they have the guts to do that against an opponent like this.”
