Spain beat Ireland in five-goal thriller at World Cup

Ireland missed an opportunity to seize control of their World Cup future after losing 3-2 to Spain in a thrilling opening World Cup Pool C game in Wavre.

Ireland went behind twice after goals from Laia Vidosa and Sophia Keenan but fought back with Hannah McLoughlin and Niamh Carey scoring from penalty corners.

Despite Gareth Grundie's side being in the ascendancy, a superb strike from Xantal Gine with five minutes remaining broke Irish hearts.

"We were very disappointed with our second quarter of that game,” Irish captain Sarah Hawkshaw told BBC Sport NI.

"We thought we started quite well, and in the second half we dominated most of the momentum of the game. But the second quarter, we were disappointed with that. It put us on the back foot.

"Really happy with how we fought back and gave ourselves multiple opportunities to win that game, but disappointed with, you know, how we didn't get over that line."

Ireland already faced an uphill task to reach the next phase of the tournament and will need to beat New Zealand, who lost to hosts Belgium, on Tuesday to have any chance.

Hawkshaw added that despite the pressure of their next match being crucial to their hopes of progressing, the side must "stick to our processes".

"We have two more games in our group, and we know New Zealand lost their first game, so the next game surely is going to be a battle between the two of us," she continued.

"It is a must-win. We've come into this with focusing on every game, one at a time, and not looking past it.

"We're going to be going for it in that next game, we have to. But we stick to our processes. We played three quarters of good hockey against Spain and are just fixing that last quarter."

It was a cagey opening to the game with Ireland dominating possession but with no end result to show for it.

They lost their way in the second quarter and Spain had a pair of goals ruled out after Ireland referred them to the video umpire.

When the Spanish opened the scoring, it came as no surprise as Ireland turned the ball over in midfield and then defensively never challenged Vidosa who had time to pick her spot in the corner of Lizzie Murphy’s goal.

Ireland regrouped at half-time and McLoughlin deservedly fired them level from a penalty corner.

However their joy was short lived as Keenan pounced on a rebound from another corner that had been cleared of the Irish goal line.

Ireland were showing resilience and with the outstanding Niamh Carey showing all her skills, she won a penalty corner and then deflected in the equaliser.

It was anybodies game going into the final quarter and Ireland were the better side but lost two players to green cards and Spain snatched their only chance, again from a corner as Gine’s shot went in off the post.