Preview: Slovakia an awkward hurdle in play-off target

Put the group tables, fixture lists and calculators away.

The mind-bending stew of possibilities around the World Cup play-offs has boiled right down for the Republic of Ireland: beat Slovakia this evening and they will go straight into round 2 on 11 October.

Ireland needed Serbia, Belgium and Austria to slip up over the weekend against Portugal, Norway and England respectively to give them an opportunity to sneak into the top three ranked sides of the nine who are in the play-offs.

The chips fell their way, and they now take on a dogged Slovakia team knowing victory will see them bypass round 1 and potentially be just one game away from next year's finals in Australia and New Zealand.

But it won't be easy for the Girls in Green in Senec, a picturesque holiday resort town near Bratislava.

"It will be extremely difficult because Slovakia is a very good team," Vera Pauw said on the eve of the game.

"They have drawn against Finland - that was the major result - but there were other results were very close. We couldn't get the win against them either [Ireland drew 1-1 with Slovakia in Tallaght last November] and actually were happy with the draw."

Last November's meeting between the two sides in Tallaght was a bit of a reality check at the time.

Ireland had just come away from Finland with a brilliant 2-1 win but any notions that they’d swat the Slovakians aside in Dublin quickly evaporated.

Slovakia were good. Although defensively sound, they didn't sit back against Ireland, and seemed to catch their hosts by surprise with a mixture of aggression, pace and slick passing.

Club Brugge attacker Ludmila Mat'avková caught the eye in particular. She was an excellent outlet all night – quick, clever and mobile, and it was her cross that