Ireland's journey to Sydney: From narrow Sweden loss to historic Scotland victory
Some Swede and a bit of Gori combined in hurtling Ireland to their first ever major tournament.
And what a showpiece it is – one of only 12 European teams at the 32-nation World Cup jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
On the day of the draw in April 2021, Ireland manager Vera Pauw feared the Nordic neighbours Finland and Sweden were colluding during the fixtures meeting to carve out a sequence which left the Finns facing a Swedish team already qualified on the final day.
That was the case for the group’s top seeds but what they hadn’t banked on was Ireland filleting Finland, home and away, and burnishing it with an unlikely point on the road in Sweden.
They even recovered from the hiccup of dropping two points at home to Slovakia to wrap up the playoff spot with the return match in Senec to spare.
Clinching their first playoff spot since 2008 – when Noel King’s Euro ambitions skidded off course in Iceland – was a feat in itself, yet surpassing that in Scotland to achieve greatness was the ultimate test.
Amber was the colour at Hampden that night – flashing green lights to a land down under.
IRELAND'S JOURNEY TO SYDNEY:
21 Oct 2021 IRELAND 0 SWEDEN 1 (Louise Quinn 49) Tallaght Stadium
Best to get the one defeat of eight qualifiers out of the way early. Ireland were unable to torpedo the yellow submarine of Sweden in their opening Women’s World Cup qualifier at Tallaght, losing to a cruel own-goal from Louise Quinn.
The defender had bagged the winner in the preparatory win over Australia the previous month but was helpless to prevent hitting her own net from Stina Blackstenius’ shot that was going wide on 39 minutes.
Topping the top seeds was a tall order but after just 10 minutes Katie McCabe gave the
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