Ireland focus turns to Norway double

With the dust still settling on their 2-0 defeat by the Netherlands in Tallaght, the Ireland women’s team are already looking ahead to June and what will be crucial back-to-back World Cup qualifiers against Norway.

Wednesday night’s victory for the European champions, which ended Ireland’s unbeaten run in Group 3, put the Dutch three points clear at the top of qualifying Group 3. but, despite that defeat, the Irish retain second place, one point ahead of the Norwegians, who have a game in hand.

With only the group winner guaranteed passage to the finals in France next year, the race for second — and a possible play-off place — could effectively be decided by the two games between Ireland and Norway in the summer though, after June, the Republic will have Northern Ireland to play at home and the Norwegians must host the star-studded Dutch.