Katie McCabe staying on front foot for Ireland's Sweden quest

The 12 April has loomed large for the Republic of Ireland but as the pages of the calendar turn irrevocably, Vera Pauw's side don't have long to wait before the World Cup qualifiers resume.

Next Tuesday, the second half of the campaign gets underway in earnest with a tough trip to Group A favourites Sweden.

The Irish side are well placed in second behind the Swedes thanks to last October's vital 2-1 win over a Finland outfit who are widely seen as the direct rival for the sole play-off place.

While the Sweden game is being described in some quarters as a 'free hit' of sorts for Ireland before they face the Finns, Georgia and Slovakia again, captain Katie McCabe is not looking at things that way.

Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast as she launched the Dove Self-Esteem Project, the Arsenal star is not looking to simply avoid defeat in Gothenburg against a team who pipped them in Tallaght by a deflected goal last October.

"Ultimately, where we want to be is at a major tournament and fundamentally to get to a major tournament we need to have these big results against these big teams, whether that's a win or a draw," said McCabe.

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"We don't go out to lose games at all. We go out to compete.

"We're a very, very good side on our day and when we stick to our strengths, we've got some really exciting, really experienced players in our team that have the experience of playing against high-ranked opposition - Netherlands, Germany, USA, Spain - so we have that experience and it's about controlling what