Ireland continue their quest for a place at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup when they meet Finland on Tuesday.
Vera Pauw's team narrowly lost 1-0 to top seeds Sweden last Thursday but will be hoping to collect their first points of the campaign on Tuesday evening.
"Finland are a completely different team to Sweden, who we played last week” explained Pauw, but there are some similarities. They are very strong, they are very much a Scandinavian team, so they have very fit players, very strong players, they play very direct and have a lot of pace”.
"We know that we have do more in possession and to create chances” explained Pauw. Everybody would have seen that we tried to do that against Sweden but they were a very strong opponent.
“In this game against Finland we might have more opportunities to use possession and to do more with it”. The Ireland boss reported that all players are fit and available for selection.
"This game against Finland is the game where we really have to show what we've learnt over the last half year. We are excited about the challenge, this is what elite international football is all about and we feel that we are ready for it."
2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifier - Group A
Finland v Republic of Ireland
Tuesday, October 26
Olympic Stadium, Helsinki
KO 18:15 (16:15 Irish Time)
Referee: Alexandra Collin (France)
