It was "nasty", "ugly" and "very physical", but neither Vera Pauw or Katie McCabe cared.
The Republic of Ireland edged past Slovakia to book a pace in the second round of the World Cup play-offs in October.
"It's unbelievable how this team is growing because tonight it was not nice, with not good football, not our best game, but you can see that these tigers can fight for the win," Pauw told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"Tonight it was nice, not our best game but you can see that these tigers will fight for a win" - Vera Pauw reflects on an "ugly game" but a hard-fought win
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) September 6, 2022
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"The opponent was at times really nasty. I said, 'this is an ugly game', but who cares? It's about three points, it's about winning, going to the second play-off round and skipping the first play-off round."
Denise O'Sullivan's first-half strike settled the game at NTC Senec as Ireland completed their Group A qualification game with five wins, two draw and just one defeat.
Depending on who they draw, Ireland could be just one more win from making the finals in Australia and New Zealand next year [there's still a chance they may have to go to February's inter-confederation play-offs in New Zealand] but it wasn't a night to stress about that.
Ireland could reflect on the campaign as a whole, and a job very well done, as the kept the dream alive.
"We always knew it was going to be difficult coming here," said McCabe.
"They gave us a really good game in Tallaght so we knew we had to start better than we did Thursday night [against Finland]. I thought the girls took the game by the scruff of the neck.
"We were challenging hard, pressing more on the front foot, and we got a brilliant goal by Denise."
'Was kicked up and down the pitch today but that's what Slovakia are going to do to you' - @Katie_McCabe11 reflects on the 1-0 win with @CorkTOD #rtesoccer #SVKIRL
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Echoing Pauw's observations, McCabe added: "I was kicked up and down the pitch but that's what Slovakia are going to do to you. We knew that.
"We knew they were going to make it tough for us, very physical, but we like that physicality. We have that in our game, we have that in abundance.
"[The play-off] is going to be a massive, massive game, probably the biggest in our history but we're used to this now. We're used to the pressure.
"We've grown as a team and I'm so proud of each and every player tonight, even the girls back home who are injured and suspended. That win was for them.
"This squad is just unreal. They're unbelievable people, unbelievable players. They wear their heart on their sleeves and do everything for their country.
"We've earned the right to be in this play-off position and I'm just so proud of them."
