All You Need To Know: Ireland v Finland

WHEN

Republic of Ireland v Finland, Tallaght Stadium, Thursday 7pm.

TV

Live coverage on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 6.30pm.

RADIO

Live commentary on RTÉ2fm from 7pm.

ONLINE

Live tracker on RTÉ.ie and the News Now app from 6.30pm. Updates and match footage on RTÉ Soccer Twitter and RTÉ Sport Facebook.

WEATHER

Thursday will be mostly dry with sunny spells, though there will be one or two showers in places. Highest temperatures of 18 or 19 degrees with a light to moderate easterly breeze. For more, see met.ie.

Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Taking the big leap

It's almost two years since Ireland missed out on a Euro 2022 play-off place following that excruciating loss to Ukraine in Kyiv, which left several players in tears at the final whistle.

They had ample time to recover from Áine O'Gorman's chaotic own goal, her back-pass wrong-footing Courtney Brosnan and trickling into the far corner. However, despite monopolising possession for the next 65 minutes, the equaliser wouldn't arrive, Katie McCabe's first-half penalty thwacking off the crossbar.

And so, an entirely unprepossessing Ukraine side advanced to the play-offs, where they fell dismally short against Northern Ireland, triggering yet more pangs of regret. In late 2017, NI had come to Tallaght for a European qualifier and were smashed 4-0, McCabe and Leanne Kiernan grabbing a brace apiece.

Now, however, it was the North who were heading for a major finals - shades of Spain '82 -