Irish women to play France

The Republic of Ireland Women’s team will face France in an international friendly on Thursday, 25 February in Richmond Park, Dublin 8, the FAI have announced.

The friendly will be used as preparation for Noel King’s side as they get set to play two FIFA World Cup qualifiers with a visit to Israel on 21 March followed by a home game against Switzerland on 31 March.

The Girls in Green currently sit in third place in Group 6 of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers behind Switzerland and Russia after four games.

France, who are currently ranked ninth in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings lead Group 1 with maximum points ahead of Iceland, Croatia and Northern Ireland.

Ireland manager Noel King is looking forward to the visit of the French: 'I am delighted that we will host the very highly rated French team in Dublin later this month.

'I will be calling up our strongest available squad for the game but we will be without two key players, Katie Taylor who is unavailable and Stephanie Curtis who is out for the rest of the season after she injured her anterior cruciate ligament in the 2-1 victory over Kazakhstan last October.’

'As a team, we have been improving steadily over the past number of years.

‘It is games such as this in which we continue to develop and if we get a victory with a helping hand, I won’t be complaining,” said King.