World Cup qualifier: France v Republic of Ireland, Stade des Alpes, Grenoble, Tuesday, 8pm Irish time – Live on RTÉ 2
The latest crucible for Irish football’s World Cup dreams: Grenoble, clustered at the foot of the French Alps and swamped by a sticky heat beneath sheer, dandruffed peaks.
Carla Ward and her women’s national team have already reached their base camp. Tuesday night’s qualifying-group crescendo against seventh-in-the-world France is an opportunity to vault higher in their ascent than any right-minded person had any reason to expect.
For the ground beneath Ireland’s feet is steady and firm. Last Friday’s rollicking, rain-drenched victory over the Netherlands means Ireland are guaranteed a favourable playoff route to next year’s World Cup in Brazil. Against France, Ireland have, in Ward’s own words, “nothing to lose and everything to gain”.
The potential gain is outlandish. Beat France and Ireland will top their League A group and become one of just four European sides to qualify directly for the World Cup. A draw or defeat means Ireland will go to the playoffs, but no outcome will alter the fact that they have secured the most favourable repechage path possible.
First up will be a two-legged semi-final against a minnow from League C of the Nations League, and should they navigate that, they will play a two-legged final against a side that finished no higher than at the foot of a League A group.
Considering Ireland started out as a League B side under Ward and were drawn into this qualifying group as its bottom seeds, you can understand why the Ireland manager grinned on Monday that her side beating France would be “one of the biggest stories in the world of football”.
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Regardless of what the world would think of the prospect – the total absence of coverage given to this game in Monday’s 36-page L’Equipe suggests the general focus is more firmly fixed on the men’s jamboree about to kick off across the Atlantic – the only counterpart in an Irish context for victory would be Jack Charlton’s side squeezing into USA 94 ahead of then-European champions, Denmark.
France have yet to win a major women’s tournament but they are studded with global stars, including Sandy Baltimore of Chelsea, Marie-Antoinette Katoto of Champions League finalists Lyon, and Manchester United forward Melvine Malard, who scored both goals in France’s narrow 2-1 win at Tallaght Stadium at the start of this campaign.
Coach Laurent Bonadei has been in charge since 2024 and is not a man to be blinded by idols: he ended the international careers of French legends Wendie Renard and Eugénie Le Sommer ahead of last year’s Euros and has continued to flood his squad with youth, this time calling up the twin talents of Maeline Mendy and Lucie Calba. France are notably depleted, however, with Lyon attacker Kadidiatou Diani absent through injury.
Ireland are happily at full strength, apart from the suspended Leanne Kiernan, meaning Denise O’Sullivan and Emily Murphy return having served their own bans for the improbable win over the Dutch.
That game was the latest proof that Ward has achieved a remarkable thing: she is an Ireland manager capable of meeting fans’ demands for a more attacking style of play. Irish football history is littered with national team coaches who either foundered on their own ambition or were deposed for refusing to sop to the ambitious demands of others.
Ward, however, has Ireland playing in her own image, and they bristle with her own direct, irreverent energy. While she has retained the now-characteristic Irish formation of a back three, Ward has infused it with vim and aggression.
Centre backs Caitlin Hayes and Anna Patten are comfortable with stepping up and winning the ball to put Ireland on the front foot, with all of Emily Murphy, Kyra Carusa, Abbie Larkin, and Amber Barrett offering a potent threat behind opposition defences.
Murphy has been a revelation in this campaign, so she will likely come straight back into the team against France, which would mean Ward’s biggest conundrum is whether to omit Carusa or Larkin. She may decide Larkin’s pace is best sprung from the bench against tiring French bodies.
Meanwhile, Marissa Sheva – scapegoated for conceding a penalty in the 2023 World Cup loss to Australia – has been brilliantly reintegrated to the Irish midfield by Ward, suffusing the Irish team with further vibrancy. All of this has served to somewhat mitigate Ireland’s reliance on O’Sullivan and Katie McCabe.
That said, Ireland will need both to reach their rarefied respective heights if they are to give this quixotic qualifying campaign an astonishing end.
Probable starting teams
France: Picaud; Sombath, Samoura, Lakrar, Bacha; Geyoro, Jean-Francois, Karchaoui; Baltimore, Malard, Cascarino.
Ireland: Brosnan; Mannion, Patten, Hayes, Mustaki, McCabe; Connolly, Sheva, O’Sullivan; Murphy, Carusa.
