Preview: Pauw wants to make China statement

There'll be bigger fish to fry for the Republic of Ireland over the next six months, but a friendly against a talented China in Marbella is a good way to dip some toes in the water.

Vera Pauw has challenged the Girls in Green to "show where they are" against their world No 14-ranked opponents at Estadio Nuevo Mirador in Cadiz on Wednesday - and that includes the three newbies, Aoife Mannion, Marissa Sheva and Deborah Anne De La Harpe who are all set to make their debuts.

Ireland played Germany in a behind-closed-doors game last Friday which was broken into two 30-minute sections and then one more 45-minute block to allow both sides to utilise their whole squads.

Pauw treated it as a tune-up for China, who were beaten 4-1 by Sweden last Thursday.

The group has spent the last eight days training in Estadio Nuevo Mirador, Marbella, and though it might be tempting to use China's loss to the Swedes as a gauge [Ireland drew 1-1 in Gothenburg in their World Cup qualification campaign], Pauw is not putting much weight on the result.

"To be honest they were just not ready for the pressure - the same reason why we played Germany," she said at the squad's sun-splashed base.

"China were 3-0 behind after 12 minutes. They were just getting into it. After that you could see they were a very good squad, a very decent team and they played an equal game after it.

"You need to get into that mode again. As soon as you are not in mode you will be under bigger pressure. You will see against China that because of this closed-door game that we will be ready for China."

Pauw has a full, hungry squad to choose from. Katie McCabe has been nursing a dead leg while Ruesha Littlejohn and Lily Agg picked up small knocks against Germany but all three are fine.