O'Sullivan keen to see big Irish crowd for Wales tie
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O'Sullivan keen to see big Irish crowd for Wales tie

Ireland's Denise O'Sullivan hopes a big Irish crowd will come to the Aviva Stadium when they meet Wales next month.

Ireland defeated Georgia 3-0 at the venue on Wednesday night, recording a 9-0 aggregate score to set up a play-off final in December.

Eileen Gleeson's side will travel to Cardiff for the first leg on November 29 and then play the second leg at the Aviva on December 2.

A win for Ireland against Wales will mean they qualify for their first-ever European Championships in Switzerland next year.

O'Sullivan, one of the team's stars, is hoping for a big crowd to support the Girls in Green for the second leg in December.

"It's hugely exciting," said O'Sullivan. "The goal is to get to the Euros; that’s our main focus. As you can see, a lot of fans came out (to Tallaght), and going to the Aviva, hopefully we can get a big crowd here next month as well.

"These are the types of games we want to be in. They’re high-pressure games, and that’s where we’ll have to step up and do our best for the shirt. I’m looking forward to it; the girls are looking forward to it, and, as I said, we got the job done in this window.

"We’ll move on; we’ll review this game and see what we can do better."

This won't be the first time the sides have met. The two last faced each other in February 2024 in an international friendly, where Wales won 2-0 at Tallaght Stadium.

Gleeson believes it's beneficial that Ireland has already played Wales. The Dublin native thinks that the loss in Tallaght was a valuable learning moment and that Ireland will be stronger when the sides meet this month and next.

"It's good that we played Wales earlier in the year," said Gleeson.

"I'd go so far as to say the loss was a great learning moment, and it was always about context. It was the second game of a window of two friendlies. We’d just played Italy... we had a bit of a lag, and in that game, we started a different 11.

"Players were missing; Denise (O'Sullivan) was missing. There's a lot to learn from that. Obviously, Wales are a solid, strong team... but I think the squad is stronger now, and it's just about keeping everybody fit."