WHATEVER NERVES GO hand-in-hand with a World Cup semi-final, Ireland’s hockey stars won’t be daunted by the opposition in tomorrow’s final four clash in London (14.00).
Spain will meet Ireland in Lee Valley after knocking out Germany with a shock 1-0 win on Wednesday and coach Graham Shaw knows a tough but not insurmountable test awaits Ireland against a nation who are familiar on and off the field.
“We both know that we won’t fear each other whatsoever going into the game. It’s a strange one going in against them, because we’ve probably both been building our programmes at the same time and we have the same age profile over the last number of years,” Shaw told RTE’s Morning Ireland.
“We know each other so well, so it’s going to be an interesting game. it’s about who performs on the day, but there’s definitely (going to be a winner), so we just have to prepare as well as we can and recover as well as we can and go again tomorrow.”
Recovery will be key if Ireland are to avoid a repeat of their last serious tournament clash with, when Anna O’Flanagan’s brace was drowned out by seven Spanish goals in the European Championships in Amstelveen.
“We’ve played each other a lot over the last four years and we regularly beat each other.
“There’s no real pressure in those games…when you come into a tournament environment there’s a big difference. When we last played them at the Europeans last year they beat us 7-2. Now, we had come off the back of our World Cup qualifier in Johannesburg, so we were very fatigued.
“On our day we can beat each other, there’s no doubt about it.”
Shaw hopes another sizable Irish crowd in Lee Valley can help tip the balance Ireland’s way and set up a final clash against the Netherlands or Australia on Sunday afternoon.
“There’s a lot of big nations out, a lot of nations who anticipated being in the semi-final so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of tickets became available today.
“I’m hoping tickets do become available. The support has been absolutely fantastic so far over here, it really feels like we’re playing at home and it’d be great if we can get a good crowd in on Saturday afternoon.”
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