Northern Ireland’s Senior Women opened their Alanya Gold City Women’s Cup campaign with a resounding 6-0 victory over Jordan today.
Experienced attacking midfielder Rachel Furness grabbed a hat-trick as Alfie Wylie’s side proved too strong for the Jordanians at the Evrenseki Stadium in Side.
Both captain Marissa Callaghan and striker Simone Magill were winning their 50thcaps for the senior women’s team – and they had a day to remember.
Northern Ireland started brightly against a side who had won their previous seven outings.
Goals from Everton Ladies attacker Magill, Reading Ladies midfielder Furness and Linfield Ladies defender Ashley Hutton put them in the driving seat in the opening 45 minutes.
After the break the predatory instincts of Furness were to the fore as she grabbed two more goals to complete her hat-trick, while Motherwell midfielder Kerry Montgomery also got on the scoresheet.
The game against Jordan was the first of four matches the senior women’s team are playing in Turkey over a seven-day period at the Alanya Gold City Women’s Cup international tournament.
The second match is on Friday (1 March) against France B at Gold City in Alanya (1730 start, local time) followed by a third and final group game on Sunday (3 March) against Kazakhstan (1530) at Hane in Side.
Their final game in the tournament will be a placement match next Tuesday (5 March) at a venue TBC. In that game they will come up against a side from the other group in the tournament, and it features Romania, India, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Northern Ireland senior women’s boss Alfie Wylie is using the games in Turkey as early preparation for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 qualifying campaign, which gets under way in August with a tie against Norway. Northern Ireland will also face Wales, Belarus and Faroe Islands in Group C of the European qualifiers.
