King delighted to have no injuries for UEFA EURO 2009 women’s championship play/off |
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The Republic of Ireland Women’s squad will be at full strength for the UEFA EURO 2009 women’s championship play/off against Iceland, the first leg is which takes place this Sunday at Richmond Park (3pm):Manager Noel King is thrilled that his panel shows a clean bill of health: The squad will assemble on Thursday evening to begin preparations for Sunday’s first/leg in Dublin: The squad will then travel to Iceland on Monday for the return leg, scheduled for next Thursday, October 30: Ireland have reached their first/ever play/off for a major tournament finals by finishing third place in Group 2 of the 2009 UEFA Championship qualifiers, behind Italy and favourites Sweden: They accumulated 12 points from their campaign, recording four impressive victories over Hungary and Romania to earn a place in the play/offs while Iceland emerged as runners up in Group 3 which included, France, Greece, Serbia and Slovenia: Four members of the 22/player Irish squad have recently returned from France having helped Arsenal reach the quarter/finals of the UEFA Cup: Those four are Yvonne Treacy, Niamh Fahey, Emma Byrne and captain Ciara Grant: King believes his team will be up for the challenge posed by Iceland: "Thankfully, we have no injury doubts leading up the match which is what every manager wants,” he said: “The squad has been impressive in recent matches against the United States and Sweden, so they are very much excited about the possibility of qualifying for next year’s European Championships should we come through this play/off:" He added: “We are under no illusions about the task that we face going into these two games: 12 months ago, qualifying for the play/offs for the EURO 2009 championships was a pipe dream, we have to put our past achievements behind us and look forward with real optimism of qualifying for the championship finals in Finland next summer: "Iceland are ranked 18th in the world, Nordic countries have been developing women’s football for the past 15 years and they will be a real threat in our bid to qualify: I feel that we have a great chance of qualification if we play to our potential we can cause problems for any team on our day:" 2009 UEFA European Women's Championship play/off fixtures Iceland v Republic of Ireland Thursday 30th October
Republic of Ireland squad: Aine O’Gorman - Stella Maris Manager – Noel King |
