Northern Ireland manager Tanya Oxtoby 'really proud' of team's performance during Euro 2025 qualifying defeat to Portugal

Oxtoby’s side entered Friday’s fixture, which was always going to be the toughest test of their League B Group 3 campaign, in fine form having only lost one of their last seven matches, but fell behind in the 25th minute as Carole Costa converted from the penalty spot.

The hosts doubled their lead shortly after the break through Lucia Alves’ strike and two late goals took the game further out of Northern Ireland’s reach with Catarina Amado netting and then provided an assist for Alves’ second of the night in Leiria.

Portugal are positioned 25 places higher than Oxtoby’s outfit in the FIFA world rankings and competed in last summer’s World Cup, drawing against powerhouse United States of America, and the Australian-born coach praised her team’s effort.

"People will look at the scoreline and from our perspective it’s frustrating because there were really good parts of the game where we were in it, caused problems going the way other way and executed what we asked,” she said. “There are positives for us, but you play a really good team like Portugal and you switch off, they’ll punish you.

"We had to tweak and adapt things during the game. We spoke before about how good teams once you have a little bit of success will adapt and we had to adapt. I’m really proud of the girls – I thought they were fantastic tonight with endeavour, ability to adapt and apply what we’re asking them was good for most parts.

"You’re always going to get mistakes, especially when you’re getting tired, so we need to learn from those bits and make sure we’re in a good position come Tuesday to put in another good performance.”

Linfield attacker Keri Halliday, 19, started the game while 21-year-old Athlone star Casey Howe was introduced off the bench and eight of the substitutes were aged 23 or under.

Oxtoby believes it’s an exciting time for the national team and challenged the squad to learn crucial lessons from Friday’s defeat which can help further aid their development.

"We’ve spoken at length about how we have a squad in transition with a lot of young players coming through,” she added. “The experienced players are really helping to guide them and you could see that tonight.

"We’ve got loads coming through and they’re really exciting so it’s an exciting time for us as a group, but we need to continue to push and learn from games like this because Portugal are a great side and we want to be competing where they’re at.”

The two teams will face-off once again on Tuesday evening at Mourneview Park in Lurgan and Oxtoby has called on the supporters to get behind her side.

"We’re excited to get home and play in front of our fans,” she said. "We’re really proud of the performance tonight and want to put in another solid performance at home on Tuesday.

"Come down and support us...we need you and the girls need an extra bit of encouragement after the long travel back.”