Sue Ronan Adds Some New Blood

Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team manager Sue Ronan has named a 22 strong squad for next week’s vital FIFA World Cup qualifier against Russia at Tallaght Stadium.

Ronan has added Eve Badana, Yvonne Tracy, Rachel Graham and Emma Hansberry to the 18 players who were on duty for the last qualifier against Group 1 leaders Germany which Ireland lost 3-2 to a freak injury-time goal from the European champions.

A win for the Girls in Green would see them leapfrog Russia into second place in Group One. Just the top team qualifies for the tournament in Canada while the runners up will go into the play-offs.

“This is a key game for us,” admitted Ronan. “We have both played the other four other teams in the group and they are two points ahead of us so we need to get ahead of them. We have produced some great performances over the last few months against top teams and delivered some very positive results and now we have another match against another team ranked much higher than us.

Despite losing 9-0 to Germany, Ronan warns that the Russians are still a very dangerous side.

"Russia reached last year’s European Championships and, after a bad start to the campaign against Germany, they have won three games on the trot. They will come to Dublin knowing a win will put them firmly in the driving seat for the play-offs so there’s a lot at stake for both teams.”

Here's the squad in full;