Romania 1-1 Ireland of the North: the second half “was not quite good” from Ni – Tanya Oxtoby

Simone Magill and Rebecca Holloway had the opportunity to open the score in Bucharest before Maxwell affected a superb open – that Oxtoby said it was a “big strike”.

However, Romania reacted when a defensive confusion between Ellie Mason and Rachel Dugdale allowed Ciolacu to hit the draw.

North Ireland dominated possession, but fought to create many clear possibilities and Romania should have won the game in the 91st minute when Ciolacu was enriched with an effort.

The draw, together with the 5-1 defeat of the Bosnia-Herzegovina with the leaders unbeaten in Poland, means that Oxtoby’s team remains second in group B1.

Romania, who lost 4-0 in Bosnia-Herzegovina and then 1-0 at home in Poland, remains at the bottom of the group.

“We knew that coming away in Romania would be difficult. I said it before the game, I thought they were really unfortunate against Bosnia,” added Australian Oxtoby.

“I thought they were the best team and their result against Poland shows how good they are one side.”

The sides will meet again at Windsor Park Tuesday and Oxtoby says “we must learn from nights like this”.

“There are areas of our game in which we are strong, with which we can continue to go on, but there are areas of our game that we must continue to develop.

“This group is traveling, we have always said it.

“We started the game again really well and we will seem more or less the same Tuesday evening.”