Pauw: Lessons to take from 'streetwise' Morocco

Vera Pauw admitted the Republic of Ireland must learn to live with being the favourites after they overcame a dogged and physical Morocco in Marbella on Monday evening.

Goals from Megan Campbell, Katie McCabe, Louise Quinn and Kyra Carusa earned the Girls in Green a 4-0 victory, but this was harder work than the scoreline would suggest.

Ireland were two goals to the good with less than eight minutes on the clock and looked set to win at a canter. However the game became bogged down for the guts of an hour, as the Moroccans made it a gritty, needly encounter that was pockmarked with a few feisty challenges.

"We're very happy with the win, it was a good win, a clean sheet again," Pauw said afterwards.

"The last goal we got against us was in Sweden [back in April]. But you will not hear me saying we played our best game so far because we didn’t.

"It was [a physical game], and I must also say we were not really protected for that. We said before the game, 'don’t let anything provoke you’, because we know how they play. We knew how they would play.

"But everybody is fit. There’s no injuries. Denise [O'Sullivan] was taken off because she didn’t play for three weeks, she didn’t train for three weeks before she came into our camp, so that was a precaution so she wouldn’t get any hamstring or ligament injuries out of the fatigue. Megan Campbell the same thing. And we had to make some changes to see some players."

Reflecting on why Ireland lost their rhythm after the two early goals, Pauw added: "You know what it is? We have been fighting for three years maybe against higher level opponents and that was necessary to get the results we had. Now it’s the first game in a long time that we are making the play.

"Against Georgia that was the