Gleeson insists seeds being sown for Irish improvement

Eileen Gleeson is convinced her Republic of Ireland team have evolved and improved throughout an unforgivingly tough Euro 2025 qualifier campaign as they look to sign off on a high against France in Cork.

Life against three of the world’s top six-ranked countries has been hard going for the Girls in Green, who have lost all five of their League A Group 3 games against the French, Sweden (twice) and England (twice).

Julie-Ann Russell’s stoppage-time consolation against the Lionesses at Carrow Road last Friday is the only goal they’ve registered to date, but Gleeson insisted on Monday that she’s seen evidence Ireland are moving in the right direction.

“I think what we saw on Friday (in the 2-1 loss to England) was much better transition phases in the build-up,” said the head coach.

“We were a lot better, calmer and composed in possession. We were much more aggressive and we can take a lot away from that.”

“Our game in Metz (against France in April, which Ireland lost 1-0) was our first game in the group. We were a lot deeper than we were against England. We were solid in that structure, the goal we gave away was from a setpiece that we definitely feel was preventable from our side and how we managed it.”

There have been positives within Ireland’s quintet of losses but they’ve been undermined by the concession of soft goals and lapses in concentration.

They could have been five down after 20 minutes against the English in Norwich. Only Courtney Brosnan’s excellence and a dollop of good fortune kept them in it. A break in play allowed the coaching staff to tweak their formation and strenuously reiterate the gameplan, leading to a much improved showing.

Important lessons were learned as they aim to nick something off a France team that’s already sealed automatic qualification to next year’s Euros in Switzerland.

“We changed the flat (midfield) three to a two and a one,” reflected Gleeson.

“And the strikers were meant to be engaging higher so we had to reinforce that message, that they were the first line of the press. That wasn’t happening so the England centre-backs obviously had a lot of time on the ball that we didn’t want them to have, and then (Keira) Walsh was picking up the ball so we just affected that area and then got the press on.

“That first 20 minutes felt like hours but I think they did really take on that change and it helped. We were much more secure then.”

Ireland will likely adopt the same 3-5-2 formation against Herve Renard’s world No 2-ranked team and they will be significantly boosted by the return of skipper Katie McCabe, who has served a one-game suspension.

The visitors are likely to rotate having already boxed off automatic qualification, but anything other than another defeat would still be a big moment for Ireland.

They’re in a direct fight with Poland to secure a seeded place for the play-offs. Only goal difference currently has Gleeson’s charges above the Poles in the overall rankings.

“It has to kind of be the starting point, goal difference,” said Gleeson as she acknowledged a narrow loss to France might be enough to hang on to seeded status.

“We can’t control anything that goes on in the Iceland-Poland game with what we do here, but if we throw caution to the wind and concede five goals they have a better goal difference so you have to be realistic.

“It’s international football, we want to have that seeded place and do everything we can do. It’s definitely the starting point in the conversation.”

About 14,500 tickets have been sold for Ireland’s first ever outing at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Denise O’Sullivan, Megan Connolly, Eva Mangan and Colin Healy will all proudly represent the Rebel County here tomorrow evening, with the novelty of lining out at the home of Cork GAA energising the squad.

“It’s great,” Gleeson added. “We’re expecting great support. We go on little walks and we’re getting great support, it’s really positive, the girls are loving it, the hotel is brilliant.

“There’s a really positive vibe around and we’re expecting the crowd to give us a real boost and support tomorrow. It’s been really welcoming.”

Watch Republic of Ireland v France in Women’s Euro 2025 qualifying on Tuesday from 5.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on 2fm’s Game On.

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