FOOTBALL DAILY: Ward and Littlejohn eye French scalp | Eriksen scare | Ronaldo's WC?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello and welcome along to Monday's Football Daily. I'm Phil Egan. Coming up today, Ireland are in Grenoble ahead of tomorrow's World Cup qualifier with France. Rucha Littlejohn says the team's ready to make history and qualify for the World Cup in Brazil next summer. And a former Premier League legend loses his job in the Netherlands. But first, Ireland trained in Grenoble earlier on, ahead of a potentially historic World Cup qualifier against France tomorrow night. Carla Wardside kept their automatic qualification hopes alive with a superb 3-2 win over the Netherlands on Friday. And they know a win would secure a place at next year's World Cup in Brazil. The girls in green have already guaranteed a playoff, but could still top their group with another major upset.
Denise O'Sullivan and Emily Murphy are available again after suspension. France are ranked sixth in the world, but Ward says nobody wants to face her side.
We would have approached it no matter what. We want to go and try and win the game. When I came in, I said we want to play and compete against these teams, and we've done that tremendously well. But we have to go there and give everything. Honestly, I wouldn't want to play against this Ireland team.
Roosha Littlejohn played 45 minutes in Cork on Friday against the Dutch and is expected to feature again tomorrow against the French. She says both her and her teammates want to cause another upset.
Yeah, look, we've got ourselves in this position. So we've got to believe within our group. I mean, if not, I don't know why any of us would be here. But we've always believed within this team.
What is the significance of Ireland's upcoming match against France?
And look, we've learned the hard ways sometimes. But look, we've got ourselves here. So we're focused on going out and, you know, making it a really competitive game. And hopefully we can come out on top. It's not going to be easy. But yes, we do believe that we can make that happen.
There was no fitness concerns reported from this morning's training session. Emily Murphy and Denise O'Sullivan's appearances back in the squad will give Ward some selection headaches. And on this week's Coy gig, Kathleen McNamee and Scarlett Heron spoke about Abby Larkin in glowing terms.
I thought it was interesting watching the game, Scarlett, because one player that like you in particular have mentioned a lot over the last couple of windows as someone who could be really important was Abi Larkin and obviously she turned out to be crucial in many different ways on Friday night. what sort of if we are i like i hate asking these questions i feel like we're already jinxing ourselves for like next year but obviously she's already been to a world cup she's already had that experience she's already had the the experience of going through the qualifying stages but like what sort of maturity have you seen come with her over the last two or three years since we were last in australia
Yeah, like I think an awful lot, like even look at, I think she's on like 35 caps or something now, which is unbelievable for a girl who's just 21, like it's insane. And I think that has come from, you know, the likes of Vera taking chances on her and, you know, taking her to the World Cup was a chance, like it was a risk. And she did feature a lot and I think she did impress. And we have seen her come in and out of the team recently. And I think we haven't really seen the sparks at times that we've seen on Friday night. But I think that was just the performance that has really now put her on a pedestal. I think like Emily Murphy coming out gave her that opportunity. And we spoke about that the other day when we were previewing the game.
This gives other girls an opportunity to put their hand up and Carla's going to have a massive headache now choosing this team for Tuesday night because do you drop Abby after that amazing performance but you also need Emily back in and Caruso as well getting the goal so it's really, really difficult and it's what you want as a manager but it'll also be a massive pain.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:56
2
What is the significance of Ireland's upcoming match against France?
1:56–4:52
3
How did Ireland's women's team prepare for the World Cup qualifier?
4:52–6:15
4
What impact do returning players O'Sullivan and Murphy have on the team?
6:15–11:27
5
How does Keith Treacy view Ireland's men's draw with Canada?
11:27–16:55
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from OTB Football
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