Peamount United play their final Women’s Champions League match of 2021 in the Netherlands this morning as they face FC Nike in the third place play-off of their group stage (11am).

A revamp of the UEFA contest saw 15 mini tournaments of four teams take place with the top two to progress to the knockout phase, and while The Peas’s ability to advance fell by the wayside during the week, honour and a European victory are still up for grabs today for James O'Callaghan's squad.

It was a disappointing 5-2 defeat at the hands of Spartak Subotica on Wednesday that has placed them in such a position, Eleanor Ryan-Doyle's late surge of a brace not granted adequate by the 10 time Serbian champions in a game where Tijana Filipovic was the star of the show.

One team allocated the hosting rights, Nike’s midweek opponent’s FC Twente’s home ground Sportcampus Diekman in Enschede is the stage for all of the fixtures, including today’s clash.

Georgia’s pride were somewhat outclassed in said match, the Dutch outfit putting nine goals unanswered past them in a game that followed their recent mediocre vein of form.

Before they head back to the Emerald Isle and return to their layman’s duties of the Women’s National League, The Girls in Green are keen to come home with a win and conclude their campaign in style.

None other characterizes this than captain fantastic Aine O’Gorman who told Peamount‘s Twitter yesterday that her side are eager to “leave on a high” and “go back into the league then in good form.”

“We’ve got to regroup now, get our heads right and focus on the game” she said.

Reflecting on their last outing she commented that it was the “differences in the box” that wrapped up their Subotica loss but that their courage was telling.

“I think they took their chances and we failed to create enough and take our own” she said.

“We kept going, we kept working hard and we showed good spirit to get back in it and the end again.”

It’s not often you see Peamount United eclipsed by any team, never mind 5-2 like Spartak Subotica brought them to in the Netherlands today, but what was more admirable than the score-line was that of their dogged performance.

While four goals from Tijana Filipovic and one from Alice Kusi had the game all but terminated by the hour mark, the Dublin outfit never gave up and broke the dead-lock, via an Eleanor Ryan Doyle freekick in the 72nd minute.

She followed up with a second from play, 17 minutes later, but time caught up on the Peas.

In what was their tenth European outing in their history, United can be proud of their never say die attitude and will be sure to bring it into their next Champions League fixture.

Given an alteration of the tournament format this year, every competitor is now guaranteed at least two games and so the 5-2 defeat today will not be all consuming.

Coming into the tie the WNL champions knew it was going to be tough as the Serbian group have reached the last 32 of the UEFA contest on two occasions and have 10 domestic titles to their name, but despite it all they gave it everything and ran out their usual high press and attacking fashion.

It took just under nine minutes for their hope to be hit with a setback when Filipovic bagged her first of the game, with two more to come from her before the interval.

Things then went from bad to worse as she unbelievably added a fourth to her tally in the 54^th minute, before the WNL’s notorious top scorer took the dirty look of the board directly from a placed ball.

The out and outnumber 10 then restored some justice to the scoreline as she struck again in the 89^th minute with a cool finish slotted past keeper Milica Kostic.

Although not the result they would have aspired towards The Girls in Green got the chance to correct some unfinished business that saw them knocked out on penalties against Glasgow City last year in what was a scoreless draw after extra time.

No progression in terms of tournament places, but to score in a European competition against some top class opposition has to be seen as advancement in some capacity.