Irish Team Suffer Opening Defeat To Number One Seed Russia At Cerebral Palsy Football 7- A- Side World Championships

Ireland's Paralympic football team suffered a heavy defeat to the top ranked team in the world Russia in their opening group game at the Cerebral Palsy Football World Championships in St George's Park in the UK this evening. The Russian side put in a hugely impressive performance and looked every bit the tournament favourites on this performance playing at a relentless intensity and phenomenal pace. Ireland's only goal of the game was scored inside the first ten minutes by Gary Messett, who has competed at two previous Paralympic Games.

As second seeds in their group Ireland will look to move on from this tough opener when they face Australia in their second group game at 1pm on Thursday (18th June). These World Championships are the only chance the Irish team have to secure a precious qualifying spot at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. Should the Irish team reach the quarter-finals they can be almost certain of a qualification place.

Speaking after the game Irish team manager Barry Ferguson said; "We always knew this was going to be a huge test as it proved to be. They're the number one seed in the group, and in the tournament. Obviously no one likes to concede as many as we did today but there were positives we'll take away. They are a fantastic team and they are at the level we strive to reach. We are really looking forward to the challenge Australia will bring on Thursday."

The Russians got off to the perfect start with the opening goal after only a couple of minutes. The Irish side responded in fine style with an unbelievable strike from two time Paralympian Gary Messett. However almost midway through the first half the Russians regained the lead going 2-1 up, making it three a minute later. The Irish had their best spell of that half approaching the 25 minute mark where they held plenty of the possession and Daragh Snell was unlucky not to get on the end of a ball on the back post.

The opening period of the second half saw almost fifteen minutes of sustained pressure from the Russians which the Irish defended solidly until the breakthrough came on 44 minutes as they went 4-1 up. With Irish captain Luke Evans and goalscorer Gary Messett having been replaced at the start of the half the Irish team endured a tough closing period to the game seeing Russia score another four before the final whistle.

All matches will be streamed live on the tournament website @CPEngland2015

Irish Schedule & Results
Tuesday June 16th Ireland 1-8 Russia, Irish goalscorer - Gary Messett
Thursday June 18th at 1pm Ireland v Australia
Saturday June 20th at 1pm Ireland v Portugal
Quarter-finals take place on June 24th

Full competition schedule here

Irish team for Cerebral Palsy 7-a-side Football World Championships 2015
St. George's Park, UK, 16th - 28th June

About Cerebral Palsy (CP) 7-a-side football
The sport is similar to football for able-bodied players with a few variations. There are seven players on the field at a time rather than 11, the measurements of the playing field are smaller, there is no offside rule and throw-ins may be made with just one hand. Matches consist of two halves of thirty minutes each.

About classification in CP 7-a-side football
Classification is a unique and integral part of disability sport. It provides the structure to separate athletes with similar levels of impairments into groups, or classes as they are commonly known, so they can compete in fair and equal competitions against one another, and ensure that winning is determined by skill, fitness, power, endurance, tactical ability and mental focus. This same principle exists in non-Paralympic sports where athletes are classified according to age, gender or weight divisions to allow for as fair competition as possible.Ambulant athletes with Cerebral Palsy (CP) classes 5, 6, 7 & 8 play 7-a-side soccer. Class 5 represents those athletes with the more severe level of CP, with those in class 8 the least impaired. Teams must feature players from each class during a game with a recent rule change meaning only one class 8 player can be on the field at any one time.