Hartley Ward was convinced that the Republic of Ireland would end up in England’s World Cup qualifying group, telling her mother Carla as much during Tuesday morning’s school run. Seeing as England, the reigning European champions, were drawn with world champions Spain, Carla would have been mightily relieved that her daughter’s crystal ball had malfunctioned – it was Ukraine who came out of Ireland’s pot to enter the mother of all groups of death.
Instead, France, the Netherlands and Poland will be Ireland’s opponents between March and June of next year, the prize for the winners of the group automatic qualification for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. The other three nations will go down the playoff route.
The French and the Poles were the lowest-ranked nations in pots one and three, so that draw was as favourable as it could have been, getting the Dutch from pot two less so.
But Ward – Carla, not Hartley – had no complaints. “It’s not the worst draw, is it,” she said, “it’s certainly better than getting England and Spain, the top two teams in the world right now. But look, there is no easy group, we’re in League A and it’s called League A for a reason. We’re talking about the best teams in Europe.”
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The world rankings – France at six, the Netherlands 11th, Poland 26th and Ireland 27th – certainly point to that top spot being a shoot-out between the French and Dutch, with Ireland and the Poles slugging it out for third, but Ward isn’t prepared to concede as much.
“I think France are beatable, I think all three teams are. So I don’t think the target is necessarily third. Realistically, it’s third minimum, but we want to target as many points as possible. But yeah, third at minimum would get us a better playoff route than fourth and also continue our status in League A.
“We know that it’s going to be tough, but this group of players continues to surprise me all the time. I have no doubt that against all those nations, we’ll want to try and get something.
“France are a team I’ve admired for many years, we know they have world class players. And Arjan [Veurink] took over the Netherlands earlier this year after doing a sensational job as Sarina Wiegman’s England assistant. He’s an unbelievable coach, a very good man. I think we’ll see a better Netherlands than we’ve seen over the last period.
“And Poland are a good side, they’ve shown that recently. They beat Wales 5-2 last month, drew 0-0 with the Dutch, so they’ve got calibre, they’ve got grit. So, all those games will be tough – but I think we can play and compete against anybody.”
The fixture list and venues for the campaign have yet to be decided, Ward saying she would discuss her preferences for where the home games will be played with the FAI.
“I have a very clear idea of what I want to present, we’ve got some good options. We loved playing at the Aviva and down in Cork [where Ireland played Slovenia last June], it was one of the best atmospheres I’ve felt. So there’s going to be conversations for sure. Interestingly, my opinion might be different to other people’s. My focus is on trying to get points and win games and that will dictate where I suggest we play certain teams, not just what’s going to sell.”
That hinted at a preference for an avoidance of the Aviva Stadium for the French and Dutch games at least, the notion being that players of that quality would revel playing on a pitch of that size and in a bigger venue.
Next in the schedule for Ward and her players is a behind-closed-doors friendly with Hungary in Marbella at the end of the month. After that, the focus will shift to the build-up to the qualifying campaign, the opening game taking place on March 3rd.
“Ultimately the goal is qualifying for the World Cup, that’s what we all want to achieve. We put ourselves in a better position by being in League A and the hard work has to continue. We don’t want to just make the numbers up.”
League A (world rankings in brackets)
Group A1: Sweden (3), Italy (12), Denmark (14), Serbia (35)
Group A2: France (6), Netherlands (11), Poland (26), Republic of Ireland (27)
Group A3: Spain (1), England (4), Iceland (17), Ukraine (34)
Group A4: Germany (5), Norway (13), Austria (19), Slovenia (38)
