Carla Ward turned the air blue as she issued the battlecry to down Les Bleus and seal World Cup qualification with a victory against France in Grenoble on Tuesday night.
“Let’s f**king go!” cried Ward after Friday night’s sensational 3-2 win against the Netherlands in Cork set Ireland up for a winner-takes-all clash with the French.
A late, late goal from Glasgow hero Amber Barrett put Ireland on the verge of another World Cup qualification as they prepare to face the seventh best team in the FIFA rankings on Tuesday.
And Ward is adamant Ireland will relish the opportunity to qualify for a second World Cup finals.
Speaking after Friday’s big win, she told the Irish Sun: “Listen, they’re both top teams. They’re just very different. France, yeah. They’re both unbelievable but everyone’s beatable. Let’s f**king go.”
Ward threw caution to the wind in the closing stages in Cork on Friday when she threw three strikers onto the pitch and the gamble paid off.
“I think some people thought I was mad when I looked to the bench and I said, ‘right, get every single attacking player ready, we’ve got to go for it, why not?’,” said Ward.
“And I, as a player, I was a 10, I liked to play football a lot. I was an attacking player and I liked to go score goals. I think at club football, I’ve always tried to play with an attitude with the ball and be a little bit more attacking.
“And you know what? It probably hurt me early on coming in here in the system that I started with so we had to then build back. We almost had to go backwards to build our out of possession structure in a five.
“And then we restart again with the way we want to play with the ball. But this lot, you know, they enjoy it. They enjoy it. So I tell them all the time, enjoy the ball with the ball. Enjoy the fight without the ball. That’s critical.”
Ireland coach John O’Shea has echoed Seamus Coleman’s strong views on the prospects of Ireland hosting Israel in the Nations League at the Aviva Stadium in October and the need for a decision to be made ASAP.
Speaking ahead of the 1-1 draw with Canada at the weekend, O’Shea confirmed that the Ireland camp are fully behind Coleman’s belief that the Gaza situation has put the players in a really difficult position as the FAI continue to stall on a decision around the game.
“Totally, we’ll be 100% behind Séamus’ answer, and we fully respect any of the players’ opinions on the scenario,” O’Shea said in a report by Joe Callaghan, carried by the Irish Examiner amongst others.
“It’s only going to get stronger and stronger, that opinion, the public opinion, and you’re fully aware of it. What Séamus said, being a dad, I have three kids myself, nobody wants to see innocent kids being involved in scenarios like that.
“Nobody…It’s not right, and listen, the FAI have made their statement on it, Heimir has spoken about it, and I’d echo that sentiment as well. Obviously [Uefa] acted on Russia, they haven’t acted on Israel. From a sporting point of view, we don’t want to give anyone an advantage, but we fully appreciate it’s not right.”
Dawson Devoy’s international debut only lasted 45 minutes in the 1-1 draw with Canada but the Bohs midfielder was buzzing afterwards as Irish fans celebrated a Cheo Ogbene equaliser in Montreal and the Bohs man dedicated his first cap to his family.
Devoy told the Irish Sun that his nearest and dearest had booked their flights to Montreal as soon as he was named in the squad.
He said: “They came over Tuesday. Me mam, dad, my missus travel everywhere. They go to all the Bohs games, home and away.
“So to have them here… I owe my mam and dad a lot, they’ve been through a lot with me. I’m just so happy to give them that moment.”
Robbie Keane will be a contender to manager Celtic in the future dispute the club sticking with Martin O’Neill on a permanent deal this time around, according to a report by the Irish Independent.
Kevin Palmer writes that Keane was ‘fully aware’ that Martin O’Neill had first refusal on the Celtic manager’s job during his discussions with major shareholder Dermot Desmond.
Palmer also states that there remains a strong chance Keane will manage Celtic in the future despite the negative reaction from some fans to his links with the job.
Manager Jim Crawford hailed the character of his Ireland Under 21 players as they came from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw with Croatia in a friendly in Zagreb on Saturday with the goals coming from Sam Curtis and Sean Grehan.
“I thought we were the better team today, certainly in the first-half. We were excellent, we had a good structure about us with lots of fantastic play,” said the Ireland manager in a report on The42.ie website.
