VERA PAUW BELIEVES Ireland “have a very good chance to do something special” as they target qualification for a first major tournament in the 2023 World Cup.
The Girls In Green discovered their European qualifying fate this afternoon, third seeds in Group A alongside Sweden, Finland, Slovakia and Georgia.
With the top team qualifying directly for the finals tournament in Australia and New Zealand, the runners-up will navigate a very convoluted play-off route.
That would certainly be a welcome headache for Ireland, who fell just short in their recent Euros qualifying campaign as the wait to reach the biggest stages in women’s football goes on.
As the curtain came down on their last attempt and Germany put the final nail in the coffin at Tallaght Stadium, Pauw said: “This team will be at the World Cup 2023 if the draw is not too hard.”
“It’s not a bad draw,” was her immediate reaction earlier, and after a manic afternoon with a fixtures meeting and some time to digest the outcome in between, including a phonecall with captain Katie McCabe, that same belief remained.
And so the big question: Is qualification realistic?
“Of course. Of course,” she stressed.
“If you saw the [recent friendly] games against Denmark and Belgium — Belgium are by far the best team of pots two, Denmark one of the key countries for the Euros — and the way that we played against them, knowing that, we’ll only grow.
“Also when we used the not-so-regular players, we were still playing better and that shows that this team hasn’t seen the ceiling yet. I’ve said that before, but it is true. Every game, we are getting better, and if we keep growing, then I wouldn’t see a reason why we do not have a chance.
It’s a tough group, of course it’s a tough group. It could have been a bit better, but it could have also been worse. In this group, we have everything to play for.”
Everything is future-focused, the heartbreak of the last campaign in the past.
The squad have taken huge confidence from those recent friendlies against higher-ranked Denmark and Belgium, while a mid-week home-based session was a huge success.
“I think the players are very confident. I was talking to Katie McCabe just before now. Of course, amongst their group, they already had all the chats and they are all up for it. She said everybody is really up for this challenge. Everybody sees that we have a chance, it’s not that we are chanceless, not at all.
If we prepare ourselves well, if we do not make the individual huge mistakes that we have done so far — and I think we are on the point of getting them out of our game — then we have a very good chance to do something special.”
It’s just about where that chance lies, looking at the lay of the land in Group A.
Top seeds Sweden are ranked fifth in the Fifa World rankings, have qualified for this summer’s Olympic Games and have reached every World Cup since its inception in 1991, finishing third at France 2019. “A really, really tough opponent,” Pauw assures, who are “on the top level,” made “dangerous” by their mix of youth and experience with an improved playing style in terms of variety and creativity.
“It will be very difficult to stop them from scoring and it will be difficult to score against them but we could have drawn a worse team from pot one. Germany is worse to draw, in my opinion. We need to see what we can do against them.”
Then there’s Finland, another top European team — the pair qualified for the 2022 championships — who are ranked 24th in the world, ten spots above Ireland. “It’s not the best draw but it’s definitely a team we can play against, and definitely a team that we have a chance against and can compete with,” the Dutchwoman says. “If we grow the way we do now and if we get a chance to prepare well, we have a chance against them.”
What about Slovakia (46th) — who Ireland beat at home and away in their last World Cup qualifying campaign, though are among the toughest of the fourth seeds — and Georgia (126th)? Ireland must take all the points on offer, plain and simple.
Basically, it’s going to be a straight shootout with “the key country” Finland for second place, and that all-important playoff spot. The second game against them is the key one, just like the gut-wrenching one against Ukraine last time out.
In an ideal world, top spot and automatic qualification would be the goal, but Pauw is one to always stay realistic and grounded.
“Of course, we will do everything to win from Sweden but let’s stay realistic where we are. We are ranked 34th but Sweden is ranked fifth.
“We can only succeed if we are realistic of where we are now. If we are now going to shout that we can beat Sweden twice in the group, that would not be realistic.
Our main focus is that we should get the mistakes out of our game so that we do not lose unnecessary goals. If we manage that, I am sure that we will qualify for at least playoffs.”
Stealing points from the higher seeds will also be important, she notes: “I don’t think that goal difference will be on our side. The teams are closer to one another level-wise than in other groups, there’s bigger differences in other groups. There will be higher score-rates in other groups. We really need to get that second spot, hopefully by getting more points.”
As will drawing on players’ experience, such as that of McCabe playing against top Swedes in the Women’s Super League [WSL] and from watching them in the Champions League.
“It’s important they know they are just human beings with one heart and muscles, like we have — and that you can win from them,” Pauw added.
In a five-team group rather than six, Ireland will have more opportunities for friendlies and “can potentially play 18 games during that period,” which is “invaluable,” as is the fact that they’ll just have one qualifier in some windows so will benefit from more preparation and planning time.
Fixtures are yet to be confirmed, though the campaign kicks off in late September.
Between now and then, Ireland will play further international friendlies in June, which are also yet to be finalised. Pauw says the plan is to go to Marbella, with more details likely to follow next week.
