As play-offs go, this is as low-key as it gets.The Republic of Ireland are in Tbilisi for the first leg of their Euro 2025 play-off semi-final against Georgia with most observers assuming the two-legged clash is a formality.That in itself poses a challenge to the visitors, who must guard against complacency and take care of business here before Tuesday's return game at Tallaght Stadium.There's no getting away from the fact that the gulf looks so large that anything less than a very comfortable win for the Girls in Green would be surprising.Georgia - ranked 118th in the world - have made some progress since they last met Ireland in the 2023 World Cup qualifiers when they lost 11-0 in Dublin and 9-0 in Gori.Former Israel goalkeeper Iris Antman came in as head coach and organised the Georgians, stiffened them up.
They accumulated 10 points from six games in Group C1 of the Euros qualifiers, beating Cyrpus (twice) and Lithuania. That was enough to send them through to the play-offs as one of the unseeded teams, which is a significant breakthrough for the minnows.They will be committed and highly motivated, but Ireland - ranked 24th in the world - should still have far too much for their hosts.Although Antman's charges ejoyed a few positive results in the qualifiers, they're now facing an Irish side arguably stronger than the one they took on two years ago.There's real strength in depth in the ranks, which will be evident this evening given Gleeson is without a number of established figures.Megan Campbell (ankle), Jess Ziu (knee), Ruesha Littlejohn (Achilles), Louise Quinn (hip), Megan Connnolly (hamstring) and Jamie Finn (knee) are all out, while Wake Forest have not released Emily Murphy for duty due to a clash with their