Preview: Ireland seek fluidity and points in Slovenia

The Republic of Ireland are in Koper looking to iron out a few wrinkles in the embryonic stages of the Carla Ward era.

Last Friday's 1-0 defeat of Turkey in Tallaght was a scrappy encounter on a bad pitch. This evening, Ireland will face a different type of challenge against a technically accomplished Slovenia outfit (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 4.30pm).

In the autumn/winter of 2023 the Girls in Green breezed through a weak League B group that included Northern Ireland, Albania and Hungary. As the best-ranked country in the group, they're expected to rack up the wins again, however it's unlikely to be as straightforward this time around.

The Turks were stubbornly organised, Greece will be committed and physical, but it's Slovenia who pose the biggest threat.

Ranked 39th in the world (Ireland are 25th), Sasa Kolman's charges started their campaign with a 2-1 victory against the Greeks in Crete.

In truth the scoreline flattered the home team. Slovenia had 19 efforts on goal compared to Greece's six at Stadio Thodoros Vardinoyannis, and it really should have been more comfortable.

They have good pedigree in the ranks; the likes of Lara Praanikar (Eintracht Frankfurt), Kaja Korosec (Paris FC), Zara Kramzar (Roma) and Kaja Erzen (Fiorentina) have all played in the Champions League this season.

After getting relegated from League B in 2023, Slovenia won six games out of six in League C of Euro 2025 qualification before coming unstuck against Austria in the play-offs.

Kolman is an old friend of Donegal Gaelic football manager Jim McGuinness. They crossed paths years ago when Kolman visited the Celtic academy as an aspiring young coach. "After one hour of talking to Jim I felt like I was going to conquer the world," he told RTÉ