{"id":402188,"date":"2026-04-16T20:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/402188\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T20:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:30:17","slug":"megan-connolly-warns-against-complacency-as-ireland-look-to-take-another-step-towards-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/402188\/","title":{"rendered":"Megan Connolly warns against complacency as Ireland look to take another step towards World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland will take on Poland on Saturday, for the second time in four days, this time at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

Ireland’s Megan Connolly in action with Poland’s Ewelina Kamczyk(Image: INPHO\/Ryan Byrne)<\/p>\n

Irish hopes of back-to-back wins against Poland are high after Tuesday night\u2019s 3-2 victory in Gdansk.<\/p>\n

But ahead of Saturday\u2019s return game at the Aviva Stadium<\/a>, midfielder Megan Connolly has warned that they cannot take another three-point haul for granted.<\/p>\n

A win would all but secure at least a third placed finish – and a significantly smoother play-off path to next year\u2019s World Cup<\/a> in Brazil.<\/p>\n

However, Lazio star Connolly warned that Carla Ward<\/a>\u2019s side should expect a more aggressive Polish performance in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they would look to push a lot more against us,\u201d she said, reflecting on Ireland\u2019s strong and positive start to Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can’t be complacent and think that the same things are going to happen that did the other night. I do think they’ll be a lot more front footed and a lot more aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to just be ready from the start. I think the spaces that showed up the other night might not show up again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll have to find different ways to try to break them down and just be ready for them to be full guns blazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing that Connolly and her teammates hope to avoid this time around is gifting the Poles a way back into the game, just as they did in Gdansk.<\/p>\n

Twice in the away game Ward\u2019s side opened up a two-goal lead, only to see it halved, and that led to a nervy finale.<\/p>\n

That, according to Connolly, comes down to \u201cgame management\u201d and \u201cmaking sure that we can either keep the lead or that we’re not struggling late on in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI think we’ve done quite well against Poland in the end, trying to manage when it was 3-2 and trying to manage the game out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, yeah, that’s definitely something that we’re aware of. When you’re playing in League A, it’s the small details that are the difference between seeing out a win or conceding, getting a draw or losing like we did in the previous two games [against France and the Netherlands].<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we’re still trying to improve on that and I think we’ve done well the other night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve set a good standard, we’ve set a good base level, but there’s a lot of things that we can still improve on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connolly reckons we are seeing the fruits of the work done by Carla Ward since her arrival just over a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Carla’s come in we’ve done our formation, we’re trying to build, and we’re trying to get that style of play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the more we’ve gone into different camps, the more we get more comfortable with each other. We’re just comfortable moving the ball and playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland will take on Poland on Saturday, for the second time in four days, this time at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1399,18999,150694,61,60,139562,43,57217,57420],"class_list":{"0":"post-402188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-aviva-stadium","9":"tag-carla-ward","10":"tag-fifa-womens-world-cup","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-lazio","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","16":"tag-republic-of-ireland-womens-football-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}