We want to play against these big hitters, says Rachel Dugdale as Northern Ireland strive to keep learning at the highest level
Northern Ireland international Rachel Dugdale says the squad are treating tonight’s Euro 2025 play-off second-leg against Norway like “a free hit” as they aim to keep improving on the big stage.
Tanya Oxtoby’s side go into the clash trailing by a 4-0 scoreline as Norway showed their class to take a command of the tie after a dominant first-half performance at Inver Park last Friday.
Northern Ireland, who beat Croatia 2-1 on aggregate in the opening play-off round thanks to Lauren Wade’s extra-time second-leg winner, conceded twice in the opening 14 minutes and trailed 3-0 at half-time.
Norway, 16th in the FIFA rankings, 29 places above Northern Ireland, extended their lead in the 67th minute to all but secure their status at the tournament next year.
Despite acknowledging their chances of turning the tie around are virtually over, 28-year-old Dugdale says the group want to keep on learning from rubbing shoulders against some of the game’s elite such as Barcelona star Caroline Graham Hansen, who caught the eye in the first-leg.
"Tanya is all about process and improvement,” she added.
"It's a free-hit and there's no pressure as we're 4-0 down, so let's go for it.
"It'll be interesting to see what details we change and things like that.
"It's an opportunity to learn as we want to play against these big hitters.
"It's another test to challenge ourselves and if we want to be playing in the Euros, then we've got to start beating teams like this.
"Their movement and their speed of play is amazing but you always want to play against the best.
"They have Golden Boot winners in their team and you want to put yourself up against the best and see how you fare.
"It's a great challenge and a great experience and we wanted to get a better result and you have that positive deeper thoughts before the game about doing something.
"The result is frustrating but we will take it into the next game and improve on it.”
Northern Ireland were much improved in the second-half on Friday night and that grit and determination is something Dugdale wants to see continuing in Oslo this evening.
The Blackburn Rovers ace commented: "It was tough in the first-half but I think in the second-half Tanya (Oxtoby) made some good tactical changes, which made us a lot more settled and able to be more aggressive and limit their chances.
"Those are the positives we want to take and it's always a learning process against big teams like this.
"It was one of those where you're not quite sure what to expect at half-time.
"When you know you haven't been good enough, it can go either way but it was great of the coaches to stay level-headed and I think that helped us put in a better second-half performance.
"It was tactical information rather than emotional and that really helped us.
"The fourth was a really frustrating goal as there were shins everywhere and it bobbled in.
"It's a positive in itself that we limited Norway to that and we got corner after corner as we started to build and gain confidence.
"We need to dust it off, refresh and analyse things to go again and improve.”