REPUBLIC OF IRELAND women’s national team manager Vera Pauw is hoping to come full circle against her former Scotland side in next week’s World Cup play-off.
The Girls In Green are potentially one game away from qualifying for their first-ever major tournament, facing the Scots in Hampden Park next Tuesday [KO 8pm].
Ireland’s opponents were confirmed when they overcame Austria after extra time in Glasgow tonight, substitute Abi Harrison scoring the all-important goal in the 92nd minute.
“Scotland was by far the better team and that was a bit surprising because we’ve seen Austria playing against the very, very top teams, magnificent games, but tonight it was all over the pitch for Scotland,” Pauw told FAI TV after the game tonight.
She was speaking from camp in the Castleknock Hotel, where her squad watched the decisive showdown together.
The Dutch coach, who managed Scotland from 1998 to 2004 in her first international post, previously spoke of how “special” a return to Hampden would be, and she echoed those sentiments with the destination confirmed.
“That would make the circle round, yeah. It’s just nice. I don’t care where I go, but it’s nice to be there and maybe I can see one or two friends in between the sessions. It’s so long ago. I don’t think there’s anyone left from my time.”
Pauw — who reiterated the fact that injury-hit Ireland need their best game ever — agreed that tonight’s clash going to extra-time may go in their favour, but also warned of home advantage, on the contrary.
“Yeah, of course. They have played 120 minutes, but there’s four rest days so physically they will be ready. But yeah, the emotions, we need to see how they handle that. On the other hand, they have played at home now, they don’t travel, they stay there. They have the advantage of the perception of Hampden Park. We need to play our best game ever, nothing has changed from that.
Ireland WNT Manager Vera Pauw reacts to discovering @FIFAWWC Qualifying Play-Off opponent#SCOIRL | #COYGIG | #WeAreOne pic.twitter.com/loyMS2hMJy
— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) October 6, 2022
“We are going to give our all, we’re going to prepare in the best way ever and we’ll see if that is good enough.”
Preparation is “well on track,” she assured, with assistant coach Tom Elmes and two other scouts who attended tonight’s clash due to report back early tomorrow.
The squad will travel to Glasgow by charter flight on Sunday evening. Sunday’s training session will be in Dublin — “a bonus because we wanted that,” Pauw added.
Scotland are 23rd in the Fifa world rankings, three places above Ireland and three below Austria. In qualifying, Pedro Martinez Losa’s side finished second in Group B behind Spain, who prevailed with a perfect record.
This will be the 22nd meeting of Ireland and Scotland – they last played in 2017, the Scots winning the international friendly 1-0. They also triumphed by the minimum twice in the Euro 2013 group stages.
Interestingly, Ireland have played Scotland more times than any other nation at senior women’s level.
The Scots failed to reach this summer’s Euros, which was a setback after their 2017 appearance and another at the 2019 World Cup, but they’ll be pleased with how they’ve rebounded. They have no shortage of big stars in their ranks: Chelsea’s Erin Cuthbert and Real Madrid’s Caroline Weir the standout names.
A win for Ireland on Tuesday will likely send them down the inter-confederation play-off route — but the main hope for direct qualification is that Iceland are beaten by Portugal on the road, unless there’s an unlikely slip-up for Switzerland as they host Wales.
