Ireland Women's Under 17s ready for Euro Finals opener
The Republic of Ireland Women's Under 17 side begin their UEFA Women's U17 European Championships in Iceland this afternoon.
Ireland will take on France at 2pm Irish time in Kopavogur -- a suburb of Reykjavik, after going six games unbeaten to qualify for the eight team final tournament.
Head coach Dave Connell expects his side to get off to a strong start.
"There's quite a few girls here who have stepped up to the mark in the last couple of campaigns and that got us to a finals, so we're looking forward to see how they perform on the big stage and they're looking forward to it as well," said Connell.
"It's been good preparation, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it transfers into the game against France. But we're very, very happy with our preparations and we feel that it was the right way to go and it will help us to get results."
Connell guided the Women's U19 team to the semi-finals of UEFA European Championships in Norway last summer and is hoping to exceed that showing in this tournament.
"What we did last year we're doing exactly the same with this bunch of girls and we're hoping that it will take us to another semi-final, if not final and maybe go one step further this time," said Connell.
"But it's concentrating on France first and trying to get a good result there and the momentum to pull us into the next game against Switzerland and then the final group game against Norway. So our target is to get out of the group, into a semi-final, and take it from there."
There are no injury concerns ahead of the game with every player having trained since arriving in Iceland.
22/06/2015: Republic of Ireland v France (Korinn, Kopavogur, Iceland; KO 2pm Irish Time)
25/06/2015: Republic of Ireland v Switzerland (Laugardalsvollur, Reykjavik, Iceland; KO 2pm Irish Time)
28/06/2015: Norway v Republic of Ireland (Korinn, Kopavogur, Iceland; KO 2pm Irish Time)
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