Ireland vs Sweden, World Cup qualifiers for women
1 min ago
The game is sold out, albeit under Covid restrictions: there will be 4,000 fans at Tallaght Stadium tonight, and the FAI has not been allowed to sell any more tickets … despite the restrictions ending in a few hours.
4 minutes ago
Team news
Republic of Ireland
There’s only one chance from the side that beat Australia last month, with the experiment of playing Amber Barrett ending in favor of a more natural fit with Megan Connolly.
If that means the system will be maintained, it looks like Katie McCabe will start as left-back, with Connolly joining Denise O’Sullivan and Jamie Finn in midfield.
Lucy Quinn makes her first race start, with her and Heather Payne for a hell of a lot of running at the front.
Louise Quinn, Savannah McCarthy and Niamh Fahey will be the three at the back, with Aine O’Gorman as right back.
Vera Pauw has made a big call to the goalkeeper: she has maintained confidence in Courtney Brosnan despite several notable mistakes in recent times. Grace Moloney – who plays regularly at club level, unlike Brosnan – sits on the bench.
Sweden
Sweden is without one of its galaxy of stars: Captain Caroline Seger is gone with injury.
They are not exactly missing in the sky, think: keep an eye out for Barcelona’s brilliant striker Fridolina Rolfö and captain Magdalena Eriksson at Chelsea.
Uefa proposes a 4-3-3 but they have played a back three recently.
17 minutes ago
Tonight everyone, welcome to our live broadcast of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier with Sweden at Tallaght Stadium.
This is Ireland’s opening match – the Covid rules saw last month’s away match against Georgia postponed – and they could not have been given a tougher task. Sweden is ranked second in the world, is the highest ranked team in Europe, has players throughout the Champions League and missed an Olympic gold earlier this year only in place.
In reality, Ireland is fighting to take second place after Sweden in this group, with next week’s away match against Finland being the decisive match of the week.
Anything other than defeat tonight would be an almost unthinkable bonus.
Emma Duffy is on the ground for us, and Gavin Cooney is here at the base to take you through every minute of the game.
Contact me – leave a comment below the line, email [email protected] or tweet @ gcooney93.
Kick-off at Tallaght is at 19.00, the match is live on TV RTE Two and team news follows.
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