Preview: Pauw eyes huge forward stride against Swedes

Vera Pauw will reach a little milestone with the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday evening but it's one that leaves her with a nagging feeling of annoyance.

The Dutchwoman has spent the last few weeks prepping her charges for a huge test against the world's No 2-ranked team Sweden, who need a point at the Gamla Ullevi stadium to seal World Cup qualification. It'll be Pauw's 20th match as Ireland manager.

And yet the gnawing feeling for the Dutchwoman when that milestone was bought up was frustration.

If Ireland are to harbour any ambitions of consistently getting to the heights Sweden occupy, she warned, they're going to need to start playing a lot more than 20 games over a 32-month period.

"Two and a half years in charge - 20 games," said Pauw. "I'm proud of it and it's fantastic, but how many games have Sweden played in the last two and half years? Fifty-five or so? That says it all.

"UEFA, I hope you're listening!

"I'm really, really proud - we are all proud, the players and the rest of the staff, that every single game we became better under these circumstances. That shows the talent we have in the squad and the determination we have in the squad. That is so contagious to us staff. We are growing - even though we've only played 20 games in two and a half years."

Pauw has often aired her concerns that football's governing bodies are not taking care of the second-tier nations in the women's game. She raised the point after Ireland thumped Georgia 11-0 last November and it was even more pertinent this week as the dust settled on Sweden's 15-0 destruction of the Georgians in Tblisi.

Even Kosovare Asllani, Sweden's Real Madrid attacker, described the win as "not fun".

Sweden haven't actually been as ferociously dominant as some may