From almost surprising herself by scoring what would have been a crucial go-ahead goal against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rebecca Holloway wants to continue causing shocks with Northern Ireland all the way to the Women’s Euro 2025 finals – and beyond.
Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Bosnia at Windsor Park came with a bonus when Hungary’s home defeat to Turkey clinched a place among the seeded teams for Tanya Oxtoby’s girls in Friday’s Play-Off draw.
Northern Ireland now stand just two two-legged knock out ties – the first of which they will be favourites to win – away from a second successive European Championship finals, something that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable.
For Birmingham City defender Holloway, simply qualifying for next summer’s tournament shouldn’t be the end of the team’s ambitions. After suffering three defeats in the group stages in England two years ago she wants to go to Switzerland and challenge the European powerhouses.
“Getting to another major tournament is the ultimate goal, that’s why we play these games,” said Holloway.
“It’s a very short career and these tournaments only come around every so often so you definitely want to try to get to as many as you can.
“The goal is always to make them and I think with this squad we are more than capable of doing that.
“We have had the experience of Play-Offs (against Ukraine to qualify for the 2022 finals and Montenegro in the Nations League) and winning those will give us confidence for these next Play-Offs.
“The Ukraine one, I don’t know why, but at the time it felt like a surprise that we even won the first leg, and then that gave us confidence going into the second leg and the belief that ‘wow, we can actually do this’. And then when we did do it and we did make the Euros – obviously the Euros wasn’t as successful as we’d have liked, but I think the ultimate goal was that we made it.
“I think now because we have already overcome that hurdle and actually made the last Euros we can hopefully now make this one and try to be more successful it in rather than just saying we’re there and that’s the achievement.
“Maybe this time it can be we’ve made it, now let’s push on and get something from it. That would be my goal and hopefully that aligns with the team as well.”
Holloway’s versatility has seen her used in various roles at international level. Oxtoby has deployed her in the centre of defence as well as on the left side and against Bosnia, who sat deep for most of the game, that gave her licence to roam forward regularly.
She was still shocked, though, when a goal scoring opportunity opened up with the game still locked at 0-0 late in the first half, before Joely Andrews and Lauren Wade struck the crucial goals after the break. Despite the surprise, her mind had already raced away with thoughts of celebrating a goal.
“I took the touch and I thought the defender was going to get there, but then they all just stopped,” Holloway recalled.
“I thought to myself ‘I’ll have a shot here’ and, even though it’s rare for me to get a shot on goal, if I had scored I probably would have taken my shirt off and just taken the yellow card – because it’s like me to get a yellow card, so it’s fine.”
Either Azerbaijan, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia or Turkey now lie in wait for Northern Ireland.
Of those five teams, the most favourable draws, on paper at least, would be against either Azerbaijan or Slovakia.
Slovakia’s four points in the group came from a win and a draw against Israel who finished bottom, as did four of the five goals that they scored.
Azerbaijan did win 1-0 at home to Turkey but scored only one other goal in the group when they drew 1-1 in Hungary.
Facing the Azeri, however, would mean an arduous 3,000 mile trip to Baku for the first leg followed by a return journey to Belfast for the return tie.