Ireland 'absolutely ready' for penalties if needed says Katie McCabe

“It’s a big science now is penalty taking. It’s not as random now as it maybe was," added Eileen Gleeson.

PENALTY PRACTIVE: Katie McCabe during a Republic of Ireland women training session at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.

Switzerland will be an expensive destination for whichever nation emerges through this playoff final but the yield from the Euros is worth multiples of the outlay.

Europe’s dearest country is also the epicentre of football – Uefa and Fifa are headquartered in Nyon and Zurich respectively, while the Court of Arbitration for Sports is in Lausanne.

Its importance in the football ecosystem conferred on it inevitable hosting rights for tournaments.

Five of the eight cities selected are in the north of the country, making them accessible to fans pondering a base in neighbouring Germany for cost and commuting reasons.

Both camps are preparing for their destiny being settled by a penalty shootout. As slight favourites, deadlocked at 1-1, all the expectation rests with Ireland to dictate proceedings.

“I think it’s beholden to the coach of the home nation to talk about the massive advantage of having a home crowd,” Canadian Rhian Wilkinson said about Eileen Gleeson declaring Ireland as enjoying the advantage by the midway mark.

“Equally there is a huge pressure on you at home with a home crowd, just trying to get behind their team. And it’s a pressure that’s on them.”

Pressurised situations apply to penalty shootouts. Wales avoided one by minutes recently when overturning a first leg deficit to beat Slovakia in their semi-final. Ireland also avoided it late in Scotland, the last meeting with Celtic cousins two years ago.

“We do our routines a couple of times a year so that we are comfortable and there’s nothing new,” said Wilkinson about contingency planning for a tie she’s constantly spoken about as evenly matched.

“We’re prepared on the bench and there should be no panic about it. Every team you have a game that could go to penalties and we just like to make sure the players understand the process. When you have equal opponents, you always have to prepare for 90 minutes and the possibility of penalties.”

McCabe is Ireland’s assigned penalty taker, uncharacteristically missing her last in the facile victory over minnows Georgia last month. She converted hers in Arsenal’s Champions League defeat to Paris last year.

“We’ll try to not get to that stage but, if it does, we’ll be absolutely ready,” declared McCabe.

It would be remiss of Eileen Gleeson not to have her players rehearse and she highlighted the equal importance of mental fortitude.

“You can’t replicate a shootout in training unless we’ve 25,000 in,” she jested.

“It’s a big pressure moment in a game as a final way to decide a game. But for me as the head coach, by having the structure around it and decision-making prepared for people, you’re getting ahead of that.

“It’s a big science now is penalty taking. It’s not as random now as it maybe was. It’s very technical. I like to lean into the science.”

Nobody required a scientific insight on Friday to realise one of Ireland’s ploys centres on exposing Welsh goalkeeper Olivia Clark.

Her height was a factor in allowing Ruesha Littlejohn’s 30-yarder loop onto the crossbar. She was helpless to prevent the ball rebounding off her back over the line.

“We’ve been working on shooting - not just me,” revealed McCabe.

“We have players all over the pitch who can hit the target so it’s about getting into good positions.”