Georgian defender Mariam Kalandadze understated it a little when she spoke last week about her country’s opponents in the first round of the Euro 2025 qualifying playoffs.
“We’ve had a not-so-good experience playing Ireland,” she said. That, considering they lost 11-0 (Ireland’s record win) and 9-0 when the nations last met in their 2023 World Cup qualifying group, was putting it mildly. “But we’re a different team now,” she insisted. “We’re more evolved, and I think we can accomplish the task at hand.”
If they do, it would be the mother of all calamities for this Irish side which is ranked 94 places above Georgia in the Fifa list. Denise O’Sullivan and Katie McCabe will have particularly happy memories of those last meetings, the pair filling their goalscoring boots – they got nine between them in the two games.
But, naturally enough, all the talk from the camp this week, not least from manager Eileen Gleeson, has been about not disrespecting the Georgians and taking nothing for granted in Tbilisi on Friday afternoon, nor in Tallaght next Tuesday for the return leg.
If Ireland can navigate those games, they will play Wales or Slovakia in the second round of the playoffs (November 29th and December 3rd), the winners of which will qualify for next summer’s European Championships in Switzerland.
Coming off the back of a sobering opening phase to qualifying, when they lost five of their six group games against England, Sweden and France, this challenge should be much more akin to the one Gleeson faced when she took over from Vera Pauw. In that Nations League group, they swept Hungary, Northern Ireland and Albania aside. They will expect to do the same to Georgia again.
Still, Gleeson could have done without a lengthy enough list of players unavailable for one or both of these games. Ruesha Littlejohn (Achilles), Megan Campbell (ankle), Jess Ziu (knee) and Jamie Finn (knee) were already ruled out, Emily Murphy too after her North Carolina college refused to release her. Since naming her squad, Gleeson she has also lost Louise Quinn (hip) and Megan Connolly (hamstring).
And after picking up two yellow cards for time-wasting in the group games, goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan will miss her first competitive game for Ireland in almost four years, her streak of 30 consecutive appearances coming to an end.
Grace Moloney, then of Reading, playing in the WSL in 2023. Photograph: Ben Hoskins/Getty Images
She’ll be available for the second leg, but for now Gleeson has to choose between Grace Moloney and the uncapped Sophie Whitehouse and Katie Keane to replace her. Experience-wise, Moloney, despite seeing very little game time for London City Lionesses this season, is the more obvious pick, her patience having shown no bounds since the first of just six caps in 2016.
Whether the manager opts for three centre backs, with wing backs either side, or a flat back four, she’ll expect her wide defensive players to spend the bulk of the game in attacking mode. McCabe, for one, is unlikely to spend too much time in her own half, her linking up with O’Sullivan key to putting this playoff to bed before the return leg.
Celtic’s Caitlin Hayes and Aston Villa’s Anna Patten, ever-presents for their clubs this season, will expect to start at the back, with Niamh Fahey, Jessie Stapleton, Diane Caldwell and Aoife Mannion being Gleeson’s other options. Heather Payne and Izzy Atkinson are contenders for the wing back roles, although Atkinson’s chances aren’t helped by getting just one minute of WSL playing time with Crystal Palace this season.
Lily Agg and Tyler Toland will vie for places in midfield, while up front Julie-Ann Russell will hope to retain her attacking slot after her goalscoring return to the international set-up in July. Kyra Carusa is available again after missing the last window with a thigh injury, one that only saw her return for San Diego Wave a fortnight ago.
Leanne Kiernan, Amber Barrett and Abbie Larkin are among the other attacking options, with 20-year-old Ellen Molloy’s chances of winning her first cap for two years dependent on her shaking off the injury that had her limping out of Sheffield United’s game last weekend.
Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson. Photograph: Aleksandar Djorovic/Inpho
If you want a notion of how small the world of women’s football can be: when Fahey lined out for Ireland back in 2010 for their games against Israel in their World Cup qualifying group, the opposing goalkeeper was one Iris Antman. Now? She’s the coach of Georgia.
“We know we’re facing a high-level team, but we have to play football without fear,” said Antman this week. “Anything is possible in football.”
Ireland will trust that the overturning of a 20-0 aggregate win over two games less than three years ago is not among those possibilities.
Ireland squad
Goalkeepers: Moloney (London City Lionesses), Whitehouse (Charlton Athletic), Keane (Athlone Town). Defenders: Stapleton (Sunderland), Caldwell (FC Zurich), Fahey (Liverpool), Mannion (Manchester United), Hayes (Celtic), Patten (Aston Villa). Midfielders: McCabe (Arsenal), O’Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), Toland (Blackburn Rovers), Agg (Birmingham City), Molloy (Sheffield United), Payne (Everton), Atkinson (Crystal Palace), Mangan (Cork City). Forwards: Carusa (San Diego Wave), Barrett (Standard Liege), Kiernan (Liverpool), Larkin (Crystal Palace), Russell (Galway United), Sheva (Portland Thorns).