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Ireland manager Vera Pauw. Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Big week ahead

'Something we dreamt of has become reality' - Pauw

Ireland can bypass the first round of World Cup playoffs should they beat Slovakia on Tuesday.

IRELAND MANAGER VERA Pauw says she is delighted with this weekend’s results after her team received a major boost in their bid to qualify for next year’s World Cup.

On the back of their 1-0 win against Finland on Thursday, Ireland can now bypass the first round of World Cup playoffs should they beat Slovakia on Tuesday.

England’s 2-0 win over Austria on Saturday, combined with Serbia and Belgium’s defeats to Portugal and Norway respectively on Friday, mean that three points for Ireland in Senec will see them qualify for the second playoff round as one of the three best group runners-up.

The other six group runners up will have to compete in a first playoff round on 6 October, with three of them then moving onto the second round. The third playoff winner will enter an inter-confederation round in New Zealand next February.

“Something we dreamt of has become reality,” said Pauw.

“Belgium, Serbia and Austria all lost their games. They were expected results but there’s usually one or two surprises because their opponents, especially England, had already qualified.

“We’re in a situation where if we win in Slovakia, we’re one of the three best second-placed team. That means we’ll skip the first round of the playoffs.

“It will be extremely difficult because Slovakia are good team. They have drawn against Finland – that was the major result – but there were other results that were very close too.

“We knew from the draw that this was the most difficult group for second place.

On the other side, we said they could steal points from either us and Finland. That’s what happened for both of us. It turned out that we have it in our hands. That is a major and fantastic result.”

Ireland had guaranteed their place in at least the first round of the playoffs with a 1-0 victory over Finland at Tallaght Stadium on Thursday, a game which Pauw had described as a ‘cup final.’ And the Ireland boss says her team will travel to Slovakia with the same mindset this week.

“We’re playing another final. We have no idea how Slovakia will line up, if they will go with their strongest team or bring in young players.

“We will prepare the same way as we always do. We expect they’ll go full-strength because they’re playing at home and want to show they’re on a good path upwards. We will have our strongest team as you will probably expect.”

Pauw will have to plan for the game without the services of Megan Connolly, Niamh Fahey, Ruesha Littlejohn (injury) and Jamie Finn (suspension), but has backed other players to step up in their absence.

“It is not necessarily that the incoming players cannot fulfil those tasks, it just means that our team-work is disrupted. And that is why we have to be very realistic. We will do everything in our power to get everybody together again and re-connected. But that is the most difficult part, getting the players coming into connect the tasks to each other. And feeling there is no miscommunication, and that is our biggest task.”

Pauw added that Ireland won’t look too far down the line at potential playoff match-ups as they look to stay focused on getting the job done against Slovakia.

“We have experienced what it is to fight for a win and gain a win and that experience will help us. We have to see what happens, because it is based on coefficients and even if win that second playoff it is still very likely that we will have to go to New Zealand based on coefficients.

“If we draw one of the second or best placed runners-up and win, you would go directly to the World Cup. But if you play a team ranked further down, then you must go to New Zealand. So the draw will be so important. We need to see. First we must beat Slovakia and as we always do it is the next game only that counts.” 

– First published 5.39, 4 September

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