Vera Pauw fears 'fresh' Sweden now an even tougher opponent for Ireland 

Pauw's side travel to Gothenburg on April 12 for World Cup qualifier

Ireland head coach Vera Pauw: Wants Ireland to show more calm in defending and 'play out from high pressure'. Picture: Silvestre Szpylma/Sportsfile

John Fallon

Vera Pauw acknowledges that Ireland’s women may have missed their best chance of shocking superpowers Sweden in the World Cup qualifying group.

While the Irish used this week’s friendly international window to finish third at the Pinatar Cup in Spain, the Swedes claimed victory at the more prestigious Algarve Cup.

Ireland’s next assignment is attempting to shackle the Olympic silver medallists on April 12 in Gothenburg.

Carrying a perfect record of five wins in qualification, Sweden will almost certainly have a sixth from their trip to Georgia a few days previous by the time they face Ireland before another bumper crowd at the Ullevi Arena. In fact by beating Ireland they might even be able to confirm top spot and the automatic ticket for next year’s World Cup that night.

Ireland gave the Swedes a game in Tallaght last September, only losing to Louise Quinn’s unfortunate own-goal, but Swedish sluggishness may have been attributable to fatigue, according to experienced coach Pauw. They had, just a month earlier, completed their Olympic campaign in Tokyo by losing a penalty shoot-out to Canada.

“Sweden is a team we could only take something from just after the Olympics when they were tired,” noted the Dutchwoman “Now they are fresh. We must put our whole heart into the game for Ireland to try to stop playing their best game.

“From next week onwards, we will focus on Sweden. They have some players coming back from injury, the most important being captain Caroline Seger. Stina Blackstenius is getting into better form at Arsenal while Fridolina Rolfö of Barcelona got injured but we’re not sure how long she’ll miss.” 

Realistically, Ireland were never capable of competing with Sweden, currently ranked second in the world, for top spot.

Securing their first runners-up finish for 14 years is the target and that objective remains on track from beating Finland in Helsinki last November. After their trip to Sweden, Ireland have another away day, in Georgia in June, before concluding with the vital double-header in September, home to Finland and away to Slovakia.

Beating Poland (2-1) and Wales (1-0) either side of a 1-0 defeat to Russia represented an encouraging week in Spain for Ireland. Young home-based players such as Jessica Ziu and Ellen Molloy made their mark while Brighton goalkeeper Megan Walsh showed enough with a string of saves against Russia to push for claims for Courtney Brosnan’s goalkeeper spot.

“Players who came in reached equal level to the ones previously on the pitch,” Pauw said of the tyros.

“They have grown up playing with boys into elite centres. Everyone can see how well Jessica Ziu is doing at the moment. She really brings another level because she has grown up playing with boys. You can see she never panics.

“We will see if she starts against Sweden, but based on what she showed,  she is ready for it.

“We will see whether we go for Jessica or Aine O’Gorman, who has got huge experience, but they are very close to each other.” Pauw added: “We made a huge step in dominating the game. Now can we do that for longer periods in the game? We don’t just whack the ball away under pressure - although sometimes we still do - but we can also play out from high pressure. That’s the next step in our development, one needed to qualify for a major tournament.”