Ireland pump more oxygen into growing sense of belief

It's almost two and half years since Anastasia Spyridonidou brazenly volleyed home a 93rd-minute goal to snatch a 1-1 draw for Greece against the Republic of Ireland in Athens.

That was Vera Pauw's third game in charge, and she was blunt in her post-game assessment.

"They were streetwise. And we have to learn from that, because we have given it away ourselves. Everyone fought their butt off... but it needs to be better."

Of the players that featured in that draw - a result that really hurt Ireland's Euros ambitions - six lined up at the Gamla Ullevi stadium to face Sweden on Tuesday night: Louise Quinn, Katie McCabe, Niamh Fahey, Jamie Finn, Denise O'Sullivan and Leanne Kiernan, who came off the bench.

It's taken Pauw 29 months to improve the quality and depth of the squad, a period in which they've suffered their fair share of pain, but the 1-1 draw against a top-class Sweden outfit is tangible proof that things are moving in the right direction - to say the least.

Pauw has always tended to look at the bigger picture as Ireland manager. She's been vocal about the need to raise standards in the Women's National League, holding training sessions for home-based players at Abbotstown to help fast-track their development.

There's also a sincerity to her praise of the team, whose passion the Dutch coach described as "contagious, and it's contagious to the nation I hope, contagious to the staff and I hope that we can add what they need so that they can go further and further and further".

Anyone watching Tuesday's game may have found the nerves contagious too.

McCabe's deflected opener had the natives stunned before Kosovare Aslanni's 79th-minute equaliser cranked up the volume as they desperately sought a winner.

Ireland had to come