Katie McCabe urges Republic of Ireland to harness spirit of underdog Down Under
Katie McCabe has a selfie with a fan ahead of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup opener (Brian Lawless/PA)
Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe has urged the squad to harness the spirit of the underdog ahead of Thursday’s World Cup opener against Australia.
The World Cup debutants begin their Group B campaign against the co-hosts, who are 12 places above them in the FIFA rankings and will be backed by the majority of the 80,000 crowd at Sydney’s Stadium.
It will be only the second match between the nations but Ireland won 3-2 when they met back in 2021, thanks to a goal from Denise O’Sullivan, who has been declared fit for the fixture.
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McCabe, who overcome her own injury scare a fortnight ago, said: “Yeah, it is something as a small nation, you kind of carry that (underdog) title I guess.
“We know we are debutants in the tournament, but we know what we want to do. We don’t want to just be happy to be here.
“We want to compete and give Australia, Canada and Nigeria the hardest games possible. That will start tomorrow night and it is exciting.
“We know what Australia have, they have quality all over the park but we also know what we can do.”
Head coach Vera Pauw referenced their slogan ‘outbelieve’ when looking ahead to playing Australia and insisted they would not buckle under pressure after coming through stern examinations with Sweden, Finland and Scotland to qualify for a first-ever major tournament.
“That word will end up in the dictionary because we outbelieve we can do something special here,” Pauw reiterated.
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