Wednesday 1st March
ISTRIA CUP
GROUP A
Chinese Taipei 1-5 Slovenia
Slovakia 0-0 Northern Ireland
GROUP B
Croatia 3-0 Hungary ‘B’
France ‘B’ 0-2 Bosnia & Herzegovina
A late penalty save from goalkeeper Jackie Burns secured a point for Northern Ireland as they drew 0-0 with Slovakia in their opening match of the Istria Cup in Croatia, reports irishfa.com.
Slovakia won a penalty with only seconds remaining but Burns, who plays her football in the US with Carson-Newman, pulled off a great save low to her left.
It was a positive display from Northern Ireland against a team ranked 18 places above them and Burns says the squad hope to push on from today’s performance and get a positive result in their next match, which is against Chinese Taipei on Friday.
Chinese Taipei went down 5-1 to Slovenia, for whom Tjasa Tibaut and Mateja Zver both bagged braces, the latter including a penalty. Chen Yi-ping had pulled a goal back to make it 2-1, while Lara Prasnikar completed the scoring.
Hosts Croatia were 3-0 winners over Hungary ‘B’, with Iva Landeka and Tomislava Matijevic scoring in the first half, Mihaela Horvat in the second.
Bosnia Herzegovina enjoyed a 2-0 victory over France ‘B’, with second-half goals by Lidija Kulis and Milena Nikolic.
Friday’s fixture list:
GROUP A:
Slovenia v Slovakia (1pm)
Northern Ireland v Chinese Taipei (4pm)
GROUP B:
Croatia v France ‘B’ (1pm)
Bosnia & Herzegovina v Hungary ‘B’ (4pm)
