PAUW: WE FACE ANOTHER FINAL NOW

VERA PAUW has described tomorrow’s Group A finale against Slovakia as “another final” — as a win would see Ireland bypass the first of two rounds in the UEFA play-off system.

Three points in Senec would leave the Girls in Green potentially just one game from World Cup qualification. Any other result and it could be up to six play-off matches, including an intercontinental competition in New Zealand next February.

But thanks to a series of results that followed Ireland’s win over Finland last Thursday, the Girls in Green are closer than ever to a first ever major tournament.

They needed Portugal and Norway to win away to Serbia and Belgium respectively on Friday and European champions England to triumph in Austria on Saturday.

That’s exactly what happened — and Pauw said: “Something we dreamt of has become reality.

“Belgium, Serbia and Austria all lost their games.

“We’re in a situation where if we win in Slovakia, we’re one of the three best secondplaced teams. That means we’ll skip the first round of the play-offs.”

Difficult

However, she warned: “It will be extremely difficult because Slovakia are a good team.

“They have drawn against Finland — that was the major result — but there were other results that were very close too.

“We all remember that we couldn’t get the win either and were actually happy with the draw.

“We’re playing another final. We have no idea how Slovakia will line up, if they will go with their strongest team or bring in young players.

“We will prepare the same way as we always do.

“We expect they’ll go fullstrength because they’re playing at home and want to show they’re on a good path upwards.”