Republic of Ireland manager Carla Ward declared herself happy with her side's World Cup qualifying draw and admitted that she was pleased to have avoided her native England.
Ireland will face France, Netherlands and Poland in their quest to qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
Ireland went into the draw knowing that they have already secured a play-off place, at worst, for the tournament in Brazil thanks to their Nations League play-off victory over Belgium.
Ward, who had previously said that she was eager to take a shot at England in the draw, admitted she was pleased to have avoided Group A3, which features Spain, England, Iceland and Ukraine, and looks to be the most competitive group of the four.
Reacting to the draw, Ward said: "We didn’t want that Group 3, did we? So when we got Group 2, we were happy.
"Any group we are going to be in is going to be tough, we know that. But if you look at teams we can try and do something against and look at our route to the World Cup, then I think this is not the worst draw.
"Originally, I was thinking I wanted England, and even to be honest, this morning I was talking to my daughter on the school run and she was adamant that we were getting England.
"Then I started to think maybe not and we discussed who we might want and I think this is certainly a better draw than England and Spain."
Ireland are the bottom seeded team in the group and with only one automatic qualification place available for the group winners, ensuring that they don’t finish bottom of the group is paramount for their World Cup hopes.
While the group winners go through to Brazil automatically, the teams placed second and third will face a play-off against a lower tier team from League C while the team that finishes bottom faces a tougher task and will face a play-off against a side from League B.
Poland, who are just one place above Ireland in the FIFA World Rankings are the team that Ireland will target to ensure that they avoid finishing bottom, but Ward admits that Poland will look at her side in a similar fashion.
"They'll probably be looking at us in the same way," she said. "They're a good side, they’ve shown that recently, beating Wales 5-2 and drawing against the Netherlands. They’ve got calibre, they’ve got grit and willingness.
"It will be tough. All of those games will be tough, but I think we can play and compete against anybody.
"We have to look at all three nations. We look at the strengths and weaknesses. We look at potentially the league of what we might need to get out of to ensure that we finish.
"Second or third, I mean, that's got to be the aim. Let's be realistic, the aim is third at minimum. That's what we want to try and achieve. So we'll look at, okay, historically how many points is it? How many points does that take to achieve that? That will be the target to go after.
"We know that it's going to be tough. But this group continues to surprise me and people all the time, and I have no doubt that against all those nations, we'll try to get something."
World Cup qualifying draw:
Group A1: Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Serbia
Group A2: France, Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Ireland
Group A3: Spain, England, Iceland, Ukraine
Group A4: Germany, Norway, Austria, Slovenia
