IRELAND ARE OUT to prove others wrong at their maiden World Cup.
They opened their campaign with a 1-0 defeat to co-hosts Australia in a Sydney sell-out last night, a 52nd-minute Steph Catley penalty decisive in the absence of Sam Kerr.
The general consensus from Vera Pauw and her players afterwards was a draw would have been a fair result. Twelve spots separate the sides in the Fifa world rankings, with the Matildas widely backed to go deep into the tournament.
Ireland, meanwhile, are appearing at their first-ever major finals, with just three debutants ever advancing beyond the group stages at the first attempt.
“A lot of teams have underestimated us,” Lucy Quinn told reporters minutes after the final whistle. “We talked a lot about that in the build-up. Hopefully teams watch and give us respect.”
Niamh Fahey also spoke about “proving” that they belong on the biggest stage.
Asked if she felt Ireland were being underestimated by other teams like Quinn had referenced, Fahey responded: “Probably yeah. I don’t listen too much but probably a lot of media had written us off completely as the whipping boys or whipping girls whatever you like to say.
Maybe in the media, we tend not to listen too much about that, we know our strengths and our qualities. We were unlucky tonight, we put it up to the hosts in front of their home crowd. We can be proud of that.
“Moral victory, there is no point,” added the Irish centurion and Liverpool captain, who was central to the battling, defensive performance with Louise Quinn and Megan Connolly.
“We’re able to compete on the world stage [in our] first tournament. We more than put it up to them, we created a couple of chances towards the end. We’re able to be here, I suppose it’s nice to be here and prove to ourselves with the performance. We belong here, and we’re able to compete.”
Fahey now boasts World Cup player on her already incredible CV with the Galway woman also holding an All-Ireland senior football title from 2004. She had a word for the Irish fans amidst the mammoth crowd of 75,784 in Sydney.
“We heard the Fields of Athenry, COYGIG ringing out, [it] gave us a massive lift. Fans were exceptional, hands down the best atmosphere I’ve played in front of, they really gave us a lift, thank you to all the fans who came.”
What about group rivals, Canada and Nigeria? What will they be thinking after the narrow defeat?
“I’ve no idea really,” Fahey said ahead of the other Group B clash, which ended in a scoreless draw. “It doesn’t really concern me what others think really.
We have our own aspirations.
“We know it’s against us to get out of the group but we’d love to get out of the group. We’ve showed today we can compete so just fine tune a few things and there is no reason we can’t get results in the next two games. But one game at a time, rest recover, go for Canada.”
Ireland returned to their Brisbane base on Friday and underwent a recovery training session at Meakin Park. Pauw reports no injury concerns ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with the Olympic champions in Perth.