Ireland's Kyra Carusa believes that the current inclination of the Ireland women's team is an entity that others in their group will not want to face ahead of their Euro 2025 campaign.
Having been drawn into Group A3, Ireland began their quest to qualify for the Euros and visited France on Friday. They will now be returning to Dublin to host England at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, April 9.
The Girls in Green will then entertain Sweden at the Aviva Stadium on Friday, May 31, ahead of travelling away to take on the same opponent on Tuesday, June 4.
With the Aviva Stadium unavailable in July, Ireland will finish their Group qualifiers against France on Tuesday, July 16, in a venue that will be confirmed soon, having played England away four days earlier on Friday, July 12.
Eileen Gleeson's side will face tougher tests than they have been used to under her leadership, but for Carusa, she believes that the other sides will not enjoy playing the Irish team when they meet in their respective fixtures.
“When we got the draw, my Swedish teammates looked at me, and it was, "Honestly, anyone but you guys."
“Because they know we’ve been in competition with them recently, no one wants to have to play us.
“That’s such a huge advantage to us, but we also have the ability to win a game like that.
Ireland has come a long way since the World Cup last summer and has entered games with a firmer belief that they can mix it up with the better teams.
Carusa admits that Ireland now has difference-makers to strike fear into its future opponents.
“We have the quality and the belief that we can score a goal and that we have the difference-makers.”
“I think we have developed a lot as a team in terms of our confidence and ability—the difference-makers that we have,” added Carusa.
“You could see that with the top nations at the World Cup, they have those players who can change a game for them and score winners. That’s something that we’re incorporating more."
This is one beautiful goal from Ireland, Katie McCabe running the length of the pitch before releasing Kyra Carusa who finishes in some style. Ireland now making light work of Albania. 3-1. 👏 ☘️ #coygigpic.twitter.com/s7mFTvYEqs
— Éire Guide (@eireguide) October 27, 2023
The San Diego Wave striker also believes that the more and more they evolve, the more annoying it will be for other teams they face. These are exactly the games they want to play, says Carusa.
“A huge part of it is having the confidence that you know you can win a game like that.”
“You have to remember that there is something to be feared in playing us.
"Again, we played France before the World Cup; how the first 35 minutes, how frustrating it can be for a team like France, "Oh my gosh, we’re on the back foot," and then that just grows.
“Then the narrative for themselves gets written: "Oh, we didn’t really want to play Ireland." That gets into them, and you can take advantage of them.
“Playing teams at this level, you have to take advantage of every little piece of it—the physical piece of it, the mental piece of it. I think that, as you said perfectly, why would you fear playing these games?
“These are the games you want to be playing.”
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