O'Sullivan: 'Our focus is to get as many wins as we can to be ranked highest'
However humbling the growing prospect is of Albania overtaking Ireland in the men’s seeding, their female equivalent have no such worries ahead of facing the minnows tonight.
The team under caretaker manager Eileen Gleeson are justifying their top seed status by sauntering towards top spot in the group and nothing the Albanians conjure, either in Dublin or Shkodër on Tuesday, will brush them off-course.
Ireland return to Tallaght from the high of gracing Aviva Stadium for the first time but there should be similar goal entertainment for the fans against a team whose three wins from last 17 matches came against North Macedonia, Armenia and Kosovo. In contrast to the one place separating the nations in the FIFA men’s rankings released yesterday, there’s a whopper 48 for Albania to climb for the 24th-placed Irish women to be caught.
It’s not so much a debate at this stage about Ireland completing the six-match series with maximum points but whether accruing the maximum return can be accompanied by 540 minutes of clean sheets.
Maybe this leisurely campaign is what’s needed for the team after the intensity of a World Cup watershed followed by the jettisoning by the FAI of their manager, Vera Pauw, within a month of their return from Australia.
Adverse player feedback was integral to the FAI decision but it won’t be until next year’s Euro qualifiers – when they’ll be managed by a permanent successor to Pauw – that the worthiness of that call will be assessed.
Another six points will seal top spot with next month’s double-header against Hungary and Northern Ireland to spare.
Most importantly, that guarantees competing in League A for the qualifiers, a smoother route towards reaching a first-ever Euros.
"That's all we are
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