Ireland hero Chloe Watkins said having superb goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran between the sticks gave the Green Machine complete confidence they'd emerge from a nerve-shredding penalty shootout with India.
Graham Shaw's charges kept their cool when their Hockey World Cup quarter-final ended goalless after 60 minutes and the lottery of penalties was required to separate the teams.
"We knew we had the best keeper in the game" - Ireland hero Chloe Watkins is overwhelmed as her country make the #HWC2018 semi-finals. Historic. https://t.co/RNjIbfvUIT #RTEsport pic.twitter.com/pP9gmJLR35
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 2, 2018
McFerran, who has been immense throughout the tournament, had made some good stops in the game and she was beaten just once in the shootout as Watkins' converted the winning penalty to send her side into the last four.
"We knew we had the best keeper in the game," Watkins said afterwards. "We knew she was going to keep making saves. We had faith in her. She just kept blocking, blocking.
"We've practised [penalties] and I just knew what we were going to do. Thankfully it came off. It ended up being a very tight game. India played very well, all credit to them.
"They've really had a great tournament. We just stuck at it. When it came down to one v ones we were confident."
Up next for Ireland is a semi-final against Spain on Saturday [Live on RTÉ2, 2pm].
They were the second-lowest ranked country coming in to this World Cup and reached the quarters by topping Pool B ahead of India and hosts England.
The journey continues as this remarkable group of players continue to defy all expectations and write themselves into Irish sporting history.
We need your consent to load this Facebook contentWe use Facebook to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
