Republic of Ireland striker Abbie Larkin is hoping that she can carry her brilliant end to the 2025 international season into the 2026 campaign after making a strong pitch to lead the line in next year's World Cup qualifiers.
The Dubliner sparkled from the bench in the Nations League play-off win over Belgium last month and she sizzled from the start on Saturday as the Republic of Ireland rounded off the year with a 3-2 behind-closed-doors friendly win over Hungary in Marbella.
Carla Ward’s side were more comfortable as the scoreline suggests – Larkin, Kyra Carusa and Denise O’Sullivan all on target – and while much was made of the decision to pull the shutters down to the watching public, the small number able to witness the game were left in no doubt to who was star of the show.
Larkin scored the first and set up Carusa to double their advantage soon after, and in a second half limited on attacking action, she made a number of gallops down the right to stretch the Hungarian defence.
When all was said and done, the 20-year-old had left her manager purring and surely put her hand up for consideration for a starting berth in next year’s qualifiers against France, Netherlands and Poland.
Before that, Larkin will return to WSL2 duty with Crystal Palace – where she has scored three times in nine league appearances – and she’ll head back to London with her confidence sufficiently boosted.
'We need to try things... Why do we want to give France a 1% on how we might press a back four? We just don't. It doesn't make any sense.' - Carla Ward defended the decision to play behind-closed-doors.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 29, 2025
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"I was really lucky to get my start and I went out and I wanted to prove what I could do," she told RTÉ Sport.
"I think I came in with a lot of confidence and lucky enough to get a goal and an assist."
Larkin opened the scoring in the eighth minute when she snuck in to rob Henrietta Csiszar, raced clear and finished emphatically.
"We were all in a good press," she said.
"I anticipated the ball going back and she had a really bad touch so I pounced on it. I was composed, took my shot and got it."
That composure was evident 10 minutes later as she drove at a petrified Hungarian defence and despite racing through at top speed, Larkin had the presence of mind to pick goalscorer Carusa out.
"I was driving up the pitch and I knew Kyra was staying in the box. I saw her from the corner of my eye and I played the ball through; she had a brilliant touch because I did fire it into her and she finished it off as she always does."
Larkin said that her dinked late goal in Leuven to seal a 5-4 promotion/relegation play-off win had allowed her to raise her game – and she only enhanced her reputation further in the sun.
"I had a lot of confidence from the Belgium game and it’s a brilliant group of girls and they believe in you every day you’re in here.
"I just took that under my wing, played with confidence and played a good game."
"We knew the conditions were going to be tough, the dryness and the heat," she added.
"We overcame that and tried to play football and got what we deserved.
"It was a really good week, it was a good week for us all to come together and work on things we need to work on and we proved a few things today.
"Hopefully we can keep this going."
