Northern Ireland women's ‘clear action plan’ in place for Portugal at Mourneview Park
Rachel Dugdale is “ready to go” as Northern Ireland face Portugal for the second time inside five days aiming to “right those wrongs” of Friday’s 4-0 defeat.
Having suffered a loss last week in Leiria across the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 qualifiers, Northern Ireland host Portugal tonight at Lurgan’s Mourneview Park in search of some home comfort.
Friday proved a tough test for Tanya Oxtoby’s Northern Ireland panel as a first defeat of the group campaign arrived to a side sitting 25 places higher in the world rankings.
Now the top seeds in League B Group 3 visit Northern Ireland with Dugdale and the squad confident of progress over the second showdown in quick succession.
"I think we’ve looked at the game and the good thing for us is that we’ve clearly identified where we went wrong, I don’t think they did anything special that we couldn’t prevent,” said Dugdale on BBC Sport NI. "We’ve got a clear action plan of how to right those wrongs and we’re ready to go."
Reading defender Dugdale has featured across the last three international panels selected under Oxtoby and views it as “very privileged” to be part of the plans for the Australia-born head coach having previously won her last cap in 2019.
"I feel very privileged to be back in and I’m really enjoying Tanya’s approach to the game and her attention to detail in terms of the culture she’s building," said Dugdale. "As a group we’re really starting to understand her principles and putting them into practice, now we just want to start getting the results one after the other.
"We’re working on it and we’re getting there."
Maintenance work at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park has led to the Lurgan switch but a venue change has been met with support by Dugdale, who made her first international start at Mourneview Park in 2016.
"It’s a nice change and allows us to be closer to some different fans that don’t travel up to Belfast,” said Dugdale.
Portugal will be aiming to extend a perfect start, with Northern Ireland out to recover from the loss following a previous 3-1 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina and scoreless draw against Malta.
Oxtoby has called on home fans to get behind the team.
"Come down and support us,” said Oxtoby. "We need you and the girls need an extra bit of encouragement after the long travel back.”