\u201cThe potential gain is outlandish. Beat France and\u00a0Ireland<\/a>\u00a0will 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.”<\/p>\n [\u00a0Ireland can pull off astonishing World Cup qualification if they beat FranceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n One of the main selection dilemmas for Ward is to choose between Abbie Larkin or Emily Murphy for tonight\u2019s game. Murphy has been impressive in the campaign overall, but Larkin was the most decisive attacking player against the Netherlands. Either way, they are good options to have, especially with Leanne Kiernan missing through suspension. Denise O\u2019Sullivan should return to the side after serving her suspension. The starting line-ups should be available in about half an hour.<\/p>\n Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Republic of Ireland<\/a>\u2019s final game of 2027 Women\u2019s World Cup<\/a> qualifying Group A2 at the Stade des Alpes in Grenoble. The objective is simple for Carla Ward\u2019s side, beat France by any score and they will qualify for the World Cup in Brazil next year. Only the group winners qualify automatically, which becomes a possibility after Ireland\u2019s impressive 3-2 victory over the Netherlands<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n It would be an incredible achievement to do so in a tough group including two teams who were in the top 10 of the Fifa world rankings when qualification began. By comparison, the men\u2019s World Cup had 12 automatic qualifiers. If they fail to win, then the playoffs beckon, where they will have a decent chance of qualifying with a seeded draw for it. But nothing can be taken for granted, and a one-off game to qualify is exactly the sort of opportunity players dream about. It won\u2019t be easy against a strong French side, but this Irish side are capable of upsetting the odds. Kick-off is at 8pm Irish time (9pm local).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s World Cup qualifier: France v Ireland, 8pm The Ireland team is out! Murphy starts over Larkin. Ireland:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18999,61,60,19002,43,18998,176619],"class_list":["post-491048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-carla-ward","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-katie-mccabe","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt","tag-women-s-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491048","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=491048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ireland's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/XUDXU3OJ77MCVUQWME4EZ6XO7I.jpg\")
Ireland’s Abbie Larkin. Photograph: Tom Maher\/Inpho <\/p>\n