The Republic of Ireland have got the UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ qualifying round under way with a 2-1 home win against Hungary at Tolka Park.

Byrne winner
The visitors took the lead in this Group 2 contest through Anita Pádár just before the half-hour but Ireland battled back to equalise through a 30-metre Katie Taylor shot as the interval approached. Susan Byrne then struck in the second half following Sharon Boyle's free-kick to send the home crowd home happy.

King 'thrilled'
Ireland manager Noel King said: "I was thrilled with the character shown by the players to come back from losing an early goal. Hopefully, we can build on this for our next game in the group against Italy on 31 May. We scored two great goals in the game and this win will build confidence at this initial stage of the group. The pitch didn’t lend itself to passing football so we had to adapt our game to a more direct approach but in the end, we got the three points we were looking for."

Qualifying system
Sweden and Romania are the other teams involved in this section with a total of 30 countries all bidding to join Finland in the 12-team finals next year. The winners of all six groups will earn an automatic place, while the runners-up and best four third-place teams will play off in October 2008 for the remaining five berths.