McCabe’s presence a boost for Ireland in advance of tough Sweden test

The good news from Republic of Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson in advance of Friday evening’s Euro 2025 qualifying game against Sweden at the Aviva Stadium was that Katie McCabe is shaking off the after-effects of jet lag after playing for Arsenal in an exhibition match in Melbourne a week ago.

Less encouraging, though, is that Denise O’Sullivan is a doubt for the game, the midfielder still recovering from the knee injury she picked up when playing for North Carolina Courage three weeks ago.

O’Sullivan will, said Gleeson, be a “late call” for the game, the player on a “modified training programme” since arriving in camp and not taking a full part in training on Thursday.

But McCabe “is in good form” since joining up late with the squad after returning from Australia.

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“She’s fine, she’s been sleeping, resting and is back in training,” said the manager, sounding significantly more hopeful about her captain’s availability for tonight’s game and the return in Stockholm next Tuesday than she is about O’Sullivan’s prospects.

While there was no little talking up of Ireland’s chances of taking something from the Swedes in these two games, following last month’s defeats to France and England in the opening window of the campaign, there was realism too about the hopes of troubling a team that reached the final of the Olympic Games last time around, and were only beaten by eventual winners Spain in the World Cup semi-finals last summer.

Having been drawn in a group of that quality, it was always likely that Ireland would finish bottom of the pack, the true target the qualifying play-offs later this year, a place in which will be secured even by finishing last in the group.

“What we always talk about is qualification for Euro 2025,” said Gleeson. “Right now we are focusing on this group, but we understand the importance of points, of every single goal conceded, every single goal scored in terms of being seeded for the play-offs, if it comes to that. We have to factor that in to our approach to the games, it’s all intertwined.”

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That approach is likely to be cautious once again, but Gleeson is faced with a whole heap of selection conundrums in light of the absence of Heather Payne, the possible loss of O’Sullivan and players like Leanne Kiernan, Amber Barrett, Jess Ziu, Jessie Stapleton and Izzy Atkinson, not regular starters, coming in off the back of highly positive ends to their club seasons.

Gleeson is, though, likely to start with a back three of Caitlin Hayes, Louise Quinn and Anna Patten, with Aoife Mannion the most probable option for the right side of defence. On the left she has to decide, yet again, whether to deploy McCabe there or push her further up the pitch, in which case Megan Campbell and Atkinson are candidates for the deeper role.

Gleeson has a host of midfield options, among them Megan Connolly, Ruesha Littlejohn, Tyler Toland, Jessie Stapleton, Jess Ziu and Lucy Quinn, with Kyra Carusa, who has started nine of Gleeson’s 10 games so far, set to be the lone striker yet again. She will hope for considerably more support than she received in Ireland’s last four games, during which they failed to score.

Sweden’s coach Peter Gerhardsson has a wealth of choices, although among his absentees is Arsenal striker Stina Blackstenius who has been ruled out of both games with a hip injury. He’s a big fan of one of her club mates, though.

“I would say that McCabe is one of my favourite players,” he said. “She’s one of the best players at Arsenal and she plays with passion, she plays with strength, she plays with good technique. What I like also is she is a little bit a winner. You can say angry, but I like it.”

Like Gleeson, he’s not placing too much stock on the nations’ last meetings, Sweden’s 1-0 win in Tallaght and a 1-1 draw in Gothenburg in the qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup, although his AC Milan striker Kosovare Asllani, who equalised for Sweden that night in Gothenburg after McCabe’s opening goal, expects much the same class of battle.

“I think it’s going to look pretty much similar. We know when we play Ireland it is always a physical game, Ireland are a team that like to play aggressive – but we are also a team that like to play physical, that is one of our traits as well. And if you don’t win the physical battles, you don’t win the game.”

The FAI is forecasting a crowd “just knocking on 30,000″, which would make for a busy night in Dublin 4, Leinster’s URC game against Connacht kicking off just five minutes later at the RDS.

Caitlin Hayes, fresh from winning the Scottish league title last weekend with Celtic for the first time in their history, is intent on Ireland becoming “the hunters rather than the hunted” in this game. The key, she believes, is that they don’t concede as early as they did against France (the sixth minute) and England (the 12th).

A central defender, she was a goal machine for Celtic during their season, scoring – she thinks – 17. “I’m hoping for a goal machine tomorrow,” said Gleeson, “we’ll even take one in the 89th minute.”

But Sweden, by the sounds of it, have only eyes for one Irish player.

“Of course Katie McCabe,” said Chelsea’s Nathalie Björn. “I think there are several really good players in the Irish squad that perhaps people don’t speak of because, well, Katie is Katie.”

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