Republic of Ireland head coach Eileen Gleeson believes her team can pull off a huge upset by beating France in Friday night's Euro 2025 qualifier.
The Girls in Green take on Herve Renard's imperious side in Metz before welcoming reigning European champions England to the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night. Sweden are the other team in a ridiculously difficult group; all three of Ireland's rivals are ranked inside the world's top six.
Ireland need to finish in the top two to earn automatic qualification for next year's Euros in Switzerland, though they are guaranteed a place in the play-off semi-finals even if they end the campaign bottom.
They are complete outsiders, but Gleeson was defiant on the eve of their French showdown.
When asked what would represent a good result, she replied: "To win! We are coming here to compete and to try and win the game, affect the game in whatever way we can.
"That has to be the starting point - we are coming to win the game.
"This is where we are, this is where we want to be. This is the draw we got. In terms of Irish women's football, it is super important to be consistent and to sustain consistent qualification into major tournaments and this is a step along that process.
"We had our first World Cup but we don’t want it to stop there, we want to continue, we want to qualify for more."
Their cause will be helped by the return of Denise O'Sullivan, who missed the February friendlies against Italy and Wales due to some bone bruising on her kneee. Niamh Fahey withdrew from the squad earlier in the week with a calf injury, but Gleeson has no other major concerns.
A crowd of around 18,000 is expected at the impressive Stade Saint-Symphorien tomorrow. Ireland trained there today, with Gleeson admitting she's facing some difficult selection calls.
"It’s nice and competitive," she said. "We’ve added to the squad as you know; it’s tricky, it’s competitive but it’s where we want to be in terms of having the highest level we can have.
"We'll be totally realistic. We expect that they’ll have more of the ball than us so what we have to do is be super prepared to be out of possession and to do that well. But the moments that we do transition, we have to be as clinical as we can be and exploit the spaces that we can in those moments."
Ireland were swept aside by France last July in a pre-World Cup friendly, however Renard's admission last month that he intends to leave his post after the Paris Olympics offers some hope that his camp could lack its usual focus.
"I think they will manage their distractions," Gleeson warned. "They have impressed, they are third in the world and I am not expecting their performance to be reflective of any disruptions or distractions.
"You’re really time constrained in international camps, you have two or three sessions to work on things. So you have to be laser focused on the areas that will be most relevant for the games. We have worked on our defensive structure and transitions, and our build-up play as well.
"We obviously know the importance of good starts and trying to be assertive and comfortable in those situations so we can give ourselves a feel for the game. We have talked about that and worked on it.
"It is super important that we get a foothold early, whether that is in possession or out of possession, and just be calm and try to dominate those key moments."
Watch France v Republic of Ireland in Euro 2025 qualifying on Friday from 7.35pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on 2fm's Game On
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