Katie McCabe was pleased with how the Ireland WNT rose to the challenge of facing top-level opposition once more in Friday's friendly against Italy.
Ireland earned a draw with an assured performance in Florence and could have won had Leanne Kiernan not been marginally offside when she scored late on in her return to action with the national team.
It was the first time since the World Cup that Ireland have faced elite opposition and, speaking to Balls.ie on Monday, McCabe said that Ireland had proven they are ready to fight alongside such quality teams:
I didn’t feel like we were out of place.
Of course, Italy had their chances at times, but so did we. We’ve looked at maybe being a bit more clinical in the final third and making Italy defend more but we’re not going to get it right in the first game of changing formation.
There will be stuff to improve on, especially coming into tomorrow. It was really enjoyable, honestly. There were new pictures, new conversations post-game on where we can do better with the players. For me, personally, I really enjoyed it.
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Ireland WNT: Katie McCabe wants to see Aviva sellouts in near future
Despite her satisfaction with how Ireland responded to the challenge of facing Italy, McCabe was keen to stress that Ireland were not getting ahead of themselves, and were taking this journey one game at a time:
We need to keep our feet on the ground. Of course we qualified for the World Cup but we need to make sure we’re focusing on each game as it comes. I know yous have probably heard me say that every time I talk to you guys!
I really feel like we can never get too far ahead of ourselves. We need to be fixated on the task at hand and that will be Wales tomorrow.
Ireland earned their draw at Viola Park without a handful of crucial and experienced players.
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Denise O'Sullivan, Tyler Toland, and Sinead Farrelly were all missing from the squad through injury, while Louise Quinn travelled and trained with the group but was unavailable for selection due to a knock. Perhaps toughest of all was the cruel ACL injury sustained by Jamie Finn in the buildup to the game.
26 February 2024; Katie McCabe during a Republic of Ireland WNT press conference at the Castleknock Hotel in Castleknock, Dublin. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
Ireland did, however, welcome back several long-term absentees for this international window. Jess Ziu, Aoife Mannion, and Niamh Fahey all joined Kiernan in returning to the squad after spells of varying lengths on the sidelines.
McCabe said on Monday that the fact those players had bedded in so well with the squad could only be taken as a positive.
"You see the levels have just gone up a notch each time we come into camp," McCabe said.
"I know we’re missing the likes of Denise, we had Louise out, Sinead, Tyler and that. But the introduction of, say, Jess Ziu back. She’s over there in West Ham and having her back after 17 months was a real breath of fresh air.
"You’ve got such young, exciting talent coming through. Obviously Izzy got her start on Friday night and Larko came off the bench, Leanne Kiernan coming back.
"There’s all these names we’re talking about which is so exciting, for me, because you can see the talent they have. It’s now just about all of us getting up to the level to perform consistently each time we come in and I really feel like we’re starting to get into a groove of that."
Tuesday sees another friendly against Wales on home soil, with Eileen Gleeson confirming that the entire squad from Friday's game are fit and raring to go in front of the home crowd at Tallaght Stadium.
Off the back of the draw against Italy, McCabe said that the competition for places among the playing group was another huge positive, and said that the players relished giving Gleeson a selection headache.
There’s competition for places now, all over, it’s not just the starting 11. I think that’s something we’ve taken especially from the Nations League.
People have come in after being out through injury or whatever other reason - there’s players coming in now and stepping up. They’re obviously giving Eileen and the coaching staff a real headache!
That’s up to us as players, to make sure we’re coming in and making it a competitive environment each day and really challenging the coaches from that aspect.
Gleeson, for her part, said that the coaching staff were in "a good place" with the various selection headaches.
In the time since the Ireland WNT's last game against Northern Ireland in Belfast in December, McCabe has played to capacity crowds with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium twice.
On both occasions, she was a standout player. She was arguably the best performer on the pitch in December's 4-1 win over Chelsea, and contributed to two goals in the 3-1 win against Manchester United last week.
Reflecting on those two experiences at Monday's press conference, McCabe said she hoped to see similar capacity crowds for the Ireland WNT in the coming months - not just in Tallaght, but in the Aviva Stadium:
I know I’m sitting in an Ireland kit right now but to touch on what Arsenal have done…that’s not just overnight.
It’s been in the works for a long, long time and the club have put so much work in in terms of setting those foundations within the club and marketing it so well.
It’s a big credit to everybody at the club for pushing it. I really think Arsenal are at the forefront of that and it’s just fantastic to see and special to be part of a club that backs the women’s team and puts us in the Emirates Stadium, which is incredible.
I want to be selling out Tallaght, I want to be selling out the Aviva in time as well! That’s the next step for this team, which will be really important.
Tallaght is obviously our home, we love it there, there’s the new stand. You can always feel the crowd on you, you can hear the chants and the screams whenever we get near goal from all the kids as well!
Ireland face Wales on Tuesday at 7:30pm, with the game live on RTÉ 2.
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