Liverpool<\/a> midfielder still travelled with the squad to Utrecht, where he was a reluctant spectator.<\/p>\nDespite sporting some heavy bandaging in training with her Ireland teammates, O\u2019Sullivan is ready to star again this evening in the first of two games this week against Poland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really proud of the girls,\u201d she said of the performance against the Dutch.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously sitting in the stand was really hard because I love playing for my country. I missed it but the girls were excellent. They defended very well and were organised. They did really well in possession and attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next step is turning those performances into points.\u201d<\/p>\n
What time is kick-off?<\/p>\n
The game starts at 5pm Irish time, 6pm local time.<\/p>\n
Where is it taking place?<\/p>\n
The beautiful northern Polish city of Gdansk will host Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Why does that ring a bell?<\/p>\n
Ireland played the second game of their Euro 2012 group stage campaign in the 41,620-capacity stadium. Let\u2019s hope for a better outcome this time around than the 4-0 hammering Giovanni Trapattoni\u2019s side suffered at the hands of eventual tournament winners Spain.<\/p>\n
Why are these games so significant?<\/p>\n
These two games – away and at home to Poland – are seen as the best chance for Ireland to pick up points that could give the Girls in Green an easier play-off path to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. Playing in League A, Carla Ward\u2019s side is guaranteed a play-off, regardless of where they finish in the four-team group – but a third placed finish would see them avoid relegation to League B.<\/p>\n
What can we expect from our hosts?<\/p>\n
Poland picked up a point at home to the Netherlands in their opener last month, before they were beaten 4-1 away to France. Having qualified for last summer\u2019s European Championships, where they lost to Germany and Sweden, but won their final group game against Denmark, they will be no pushovers. They showed their class last October with a 5-2 friendly win away to Wales, and that was without their star Barcelona forward Ewa Pajor, who has scored 70 goals in 107 caps.<\/p>\n
What has Carla Ward said about them?<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched them at the Euros, I was really impressed with them. They’ve got a lot of world-class players. They’ve also got a handful of players playing Champions League football. They’re aggressive, really aggressive in transition. I was talking with the players the other day about how they covered the most distance, the most high-speed running at the Euros. That tells you an awful lot about what they’re about. We love to fight. We love the energy. They’re similar. So we’re going to have to absolutely match that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be naive to focus on one (player). Of course, you have to look at Pajor. Rightly so. She’s competing at the highest level, scoring goals, both in Champions League and La Liga. So she’s a top, top player. But like I’ll keep alluding to, they’ve got a lot of top players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any team news?<\/p>\n
Ward is missing Ruesha Littlejohn for this evening\u2019s game (achilles), but she expects the Crystal Palace midfielder to be back for Saturday\u2019s return game at the Aviva Stadium. But with O\u2019Sullivan back in contention, the Ireland boss said: \u201cWhen Denise ticks, we as a team tick \u201cI\u2019ve talked a lot about her importance from day one. She\u2019s a top professional and player. Everybody feels it when Denise is not around. She\u2019s hugely important and it\u2019s great to have her back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was O\u2019Sullivan a doubt after missing the Dutch game?<\/p>\n
The Cork native praised the staff at Liverpool for getting her fit in time for this international window. \u201cI went back to Liverpool and was in great hands there, so I’m feeling strong, feeling ready to go this weekend and really excited for the game,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
What are the odds?<\/p>\n
BOYLEsports have installed the hosts as favourites at 3\/4, while Ireland are 12\/5 to get the win. A draw is also 12\/5.<\/p>\n
Remind us of the Ireland squad.<\/p>\n
Goalkeepers: Courtney Brosnan (Everton FC), Sophie Whitehouse (Charlton Athletic), Grace Moloney (Sunderland).<\/p>\n
Defenders: Katie McCabe (Arsenal FC), Anna Patten (Aston Villa FC), Caitlin Hayes (Brighton & Hove Albion), Aoife Mannion (Newcastle United), Chloe Mustaki (Nottingham Forest), Jamie Finn (Sunderland), Maria Reynolds (Shamrock Rovers).<\/p>\n
Midfielders: Denise O’Sullivan (Liverpool), Tyler Toland (Durham), Megan Connolly (Lazio), Marissa Sheva (Sunderland), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City), Jess Ziu (West Ham United), Aoibheann Clancy (Shelbourne).<\/p>\n
Forwards: Saoirse Noonan (Celtic FC), Abbie Larkin (Crystal Palace), Leanne Kiernan (Nottingham Forest – loan), Emily Murphy (Newcastle United), Kyra Carusa (Kansas City Current – loan), Amber Barrett (Strasbourg).<\/p>\n
Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team news, betting odds and more with Carla Ward’s side eager to get points on the board after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1356,1354,1353,1357,1355,9,1352,1350,1351],"class_list":{"0":"post-1511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-poland","8":"tag-euro-2012","9":"tag-fifa-womens-world-cup","10":"tag-france-national-football-team","11":"tag-giovanni-trapattoni","12":"tag-liverpool-women-fc","13":"tag-poland","14":"tag-poland-football-team","15":"tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","16":"tag-republic-of-ireland-womens-football-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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