Germany too strong for Irish women in Spain

The Irish women suffered their first defeat of the European Championships in Barcelona this afternoon after suffering a 4-0 drubbing…

The Irish women suffered their first defeat of the European Championships in Barcelona this afternoon after suffering a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Germany.

Having opened the scoring in the seventh minute through Nadine Ernsting-Krienke, the Germans comfortably kept Ireland at arm's length before adding a further three goals in the last 25 minutes.

Denise Klecker added the second before Cornellia Reiter and Alexandra Kollmar killed the match off and seriously dented Ireland's championships ambitions.

Ireland meet the Ukraine tomorrow in a tie likely to decide their fate.