Women's Olympic qualifier: Ireland one victory away from qualification

Ireland will face Spain in the semi-finals on Thursday

Ireland marched into the semi-finals at the Olympic qualifiers with a confident 3-1 win over Korea in Valencia.

After a scoreless and sometimes cagey first half, goals from Sarah Hawkshaw and Deirdre Duke in the third quarter set Ireland on their way.

Ireland conceded their first goal of the tournament when Hyejin Cho scored in the final quarter.

A penalty stroke converted by Roisin Upton settled any nerves and in the end Ireland were well worth their victory.

Sean Dancer's side now have two chances to make the Olympics. If they can beat Spain on Thursday that will be enough but if they lose they'll take on either Great Britain or Belgium in the third place play-off, with the winners clinching the final place in Paris.

"There's two games to go and obviously if we do really well in the next game we set ourselves up for Paris," said Dancer.

"If I just refer back to what we talked about maybe about four weeks ago before we left Ireland. I just said we're here to win a medal and I'm saying that because I really believe it's probably the first time we're in a position where we're competing hard for medals to finish in the top three.

"That's the focus, finishing in the top three and obviously with the top three gives us qualification."

Cagey first half

In the past Irish sides may well have sat back and played for the draw that would have seen them move on in the tournament, but this Irish team attacked from the whistle and dominated the early stages but as the first quarter wore on Korea got a grip of the game and Ayeisha McFerran had to make a sharp save from a Korean corner.

Chances were difficult to carve out as the game remained goalless at the interval.

Ireland began the second half with the same positive approach and when they were awarded a penalty corner they produced another fine routine with Hawkshaw diving to deflect the pass from Hannah McLoughlin.

The Irish forwards led by Katie Mullan and the outstanding Niamh Carey were creating havoc and with just 3.7 seconds left in the third quarter the advantage was doubled.

Chloe Watkins found Naomi Carroll who set up Duke for a neat reverse stick finish.

Korea had to force the issue and Hyejin Cho scored a well worked goal with 12 minutes remaining in the game.

Ireland's tempo never dropped and they remained on the front foot and when Hawkshaw was fouled in the circle, Upton stepped up and slammed home the penalty stroke.

Thursday's encounter with Spain should be a tight, enthralling encounter with Olympic qualification on the line with the home support matched by the Irish fans who have made their way to Valencia.

Dancer added, "Obviously the Irish supporters travel well, so maybe you call it 50-50 on the advantage of the home crowd. We know it's gonna be a tough game and yet the nerves will be for them because they're at home.

"But again once we go home our focus will be on ourselves to get ready for Spain. We know them and they do certainly have some good skills and a good attack that we need to close that down.

"We're really confident in how we're going forward at the moment so we know that we can match them."