Ireland start Istria Cup campaign against Hungary

Wednesday 4^th March will see the kick-off of the Istria Cup in Croatia. 2015 will see Ireland make their first appearance in the competition having previously played in the 2013 and 2014 Cyprus Cup finishing 6^th and 8^th respectively. The squad head into this year’s tournament on the back of a huge 2014 where Ireland moved up to 29^th in the world rankings and gained their best finish in a qualifying campaign amassing 17 point from 10 games finishing 3^rd behind Germany and Russia.

With the addition of youth to the constant developing 2014 squad Ireland there are high expectations of doing very well this week from within the squad. Players such as Katie McCabe, Megan Connolly, Lauren Dwyer and Sarah Rowe will be hoping to use the Istria Cup to gain valuable international experience and impress manager Sue Ronan before the new European championship qualifying campaign begins later in the year. Every team playing four games in seven days so each member of the playing squad is sure to see game time, and have the opportunity to force their way into the starting XI.

Ireland begin their campaign against Hungary (10:30 am Irish time) and will be hoping they can come out of the block firing and registering their first win. Denise O’Sullivan spoke to extratime.ie today and describes the atmosphere in the squad to extremely positive and that the girls are really looking forward to getting started against Hungary.

Ireland’s second game takes place on the 6^th against Slovakia(10:30am Irish time) and Ireland will be hoping that they can repeat the feat of the previous world cup qualification campaign where they picked up maximum points home and away to Slovakia. In the final round of group games Ireland will meet Austria on the 6^th of March (1pm Irish time) with ambitions of making the final on the 11^th of March.

Group A                                                          Group B                                                  Group C

Ireland                                                             Poland                                                     Wales

Austria                                                             Romania                                                 Costa Rica

Hungary                                                           Croatia                                          Bosnia and Herzegovina

Slovakia                                                           Northern Ireland                                   France B