UEFA Women's Nations League 2025
Turkey v Republic of Ireland, Esenler Stadyumu, Friday, 6pm
TV/PLAYER
Watch live build-up and coverage of the match on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player from 5.30pm.
RADIO
Commentary on 2fm's Game On.
ONLINE
Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
WEATHER
It will be sunny in Istanbul with temperatures reaching highs of 24 degrees Celsius on Friday. Sunset will be around 8.30pm so shortly after the end of the match.
🇮🇪 Ireland's away clash in Turkey will be live on @RTE2 @RTEplayer & @GameOn2FM on Friday
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) May 28, 2025
Rachel Graham outlines how she'd like #COYGIG to line-up for the Women's Nations League match #TURIRL
📺/🎧 Full #RTESoccerPodcast: https://t.co/fXD3SSMxcH pic.twitter.com/DdZogqATHu
A pep in McCabe's step but whether she starts is another question
Saturday was a momentous day in the already acclaimed career of Ireland captain Katie McCabe.
Eighteen years on from when Girls in Green record cap holder and current assistant coach Emma Byrne, Yvonne Tracy and Ciara Grant tasted European glory with Arsenal, McCabe became the fourth Irish player to win a Champions League medal as she played her part in the Gunners' final win over Barcelona.
The celebrations were raucous and McCabe appeared in great form during Arsenal's Monday homecoming as she got on the mic to occasionally serenade the club's supporters and team-mates alike.
But such is the life of a professional sportsperson, there's always another challenge on the horizon and the very next day, she had to quickly jet off to Turkey to join her Ireland team-mates ahead of Friday's UEFA Women's Nations League fixture.
The 29-year-old arrived at the team hotel in Istanbul to a hero's welcome and a guard of honour.
With the Turkey fixture coming so soon after the emotional rollercoaster of playing in a Champions League final and to be quickly followed by what will be a revenge mission against Slovenia next Tuesday, whether McCabe will start on Friday will be interesting to see.
Katie McCabe was given a guard of honour by her Republic of Ireland team-mates as she arrived in camp ahead of Friday's clash with Turkey, a game Marissa Sheva thinks the squad will be better prepared for after longer exposure to Carla Ward's methods pic.twitter.com/sI032u0SOA
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) May 28, 2025
She certainly will want to and manager Carla Ward would hope she's ready to go given the evidence of how Ireland performed in the first half of their last away game against Greece without her and how she then impacted the game positively after coming on at half-time despite being hampered by a calf strain.
Indeed Ward has indicated that McCabe will be ready to lead Ireland out: "It was about her enjoying those celebrations but she's a professional, she's fit, she's ready. Maybe a question mark on her calf at the moment... but she's said to me straight away, 'I'm ready, I want to play', so of course she's available for selection."
New faces and a fond farewell?
Ward has called up US-born Adelaide United striker Erin Healy, who has scored eight goals in her debut season in the Ninja A League, and has been compared to the injured Leanne Kiernan by the Ireland boss.
"I like to be involved in a lot of the play and I like to be creative" - new Republic of Ireland recruit Erin Healy on what the fans can expect from her #COYGIG pic.twitter.com/sPomN2Bvvl
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) May 27, 2025
"If you have a look at her, she can score goals and link the play. Importantly, she has got a lot of pace and somebody we have been excited about," Ward said.
While Kyra Carusa and Amber Barrett will be ahead in the pecking order up front, the Turkey game could provide an opportunity for Healy to make her debut and get some minutes in the latter stages.
Similarly - but for different reasons - Louise Quinn could feature too. Having announced her retirement earlier this month, the veteran centre-back was included in this squad as she bids farewell from the game.
But Quinn isn't expecting a final cap or two to be handed out between now and next Tuesday.
"The fact that I was able to get the call-up – it's about the team, obviously – but I'm here to play. I'm here to fight for my position, it's not going to be given to me. I absolutely know that. Carla doesn't owe me anything," she stated.
"I'm going to be training hard all week to try to get myself in the team and we'll see how it goes."
Turkey a tough nut in Tallaght but have they tailed off since?
Ireland will know they won't have it easy on Friday even if Turkey are ranked 58th by FIFA compared to 26th for the Girls in Green.
Memories will be fresh of the reverse fixture in February - Ward's first as manager - when the Turkish proved a tough nut to crack as Ireland eked out a 1-0 win and endured a couple of tricky moments defensively.
Turkey followed that up by edging to a 1-0 home win over Greece who are ranked slightly below them.
Then in the double-header against Slovenia in April, they lost 3-0 on the road - a slightly better showing on the scoreboard than Ireland managed in going down 4-0 there - and then narrowly losing 1-0 on home soil in Sivas.
The main takeaway is that, the Slovenia away game aside, they do not concede a lot of goals, especially at home so expect a tightly-fought encounter similar to the February encounter in Tallaght.
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