Breaking Ireland edge past Finland to make World Cup play-offs

The Republic of Ireland are into the World Cup play-offs after a nervy, scrappy 1-0 win against Finland in front of a record crowd at Tallaght Stadium.

Substitute Lily Agg's well-taken header in the 54th minute settled a contest that Ireland had, largely, been second best in.

But who cares? Certainly none of the Irish supporters who made up the bulk of the attendance. And certainly not Vera Pauw and her players, who savoured an emotional lap of honour after the final whistle.

Ireland - third seeds when the draw was made in April 2021 - have secured second spot in Group A and can now look forward to October's complex play-off format with their dreams of making it to Australia and New Zealand next year intact.

In the build-up, Pauw had warned against looking too far: "In Dutch we say, 'don't sell the skin of a bear before you shoot him'."

Her 'tigers' have played better than this over the course of the campaign, but the bear has been slayed. Ireland have made it to a play-off for the first time since 2008, when they lost to Iceland in the European Championships.

Next up, a trip to Slovakia on Tuesday for their final group match.

And then, we really get down to business.

Niamh Fahey missed out with a groin injury so Pauw was forced into a defensive reshuffle.

Megan Campbell was handed her first Ireland start in three years on the left side of a five-player defence that was marshalled by the central trio of Diane Caldwell, Louise Quinn and Megan Connolly. Jamie Finn was stationed on the right.

That meant Ruesha Littlejohn and Denise O'Sullivan sat in the engine room, with Katie McCabe and Jess Ziu in the wider positions and Heather Payne up top.

Whatever the plan was though, it didn’t really work for Ireland in a disjointed first