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It took a while, but the Republic of Ireland eventually moved through the gears to sail past Greece 4-0 in Crete and get their Nations League back on track.

Smarting after February's 4-0 loss to Slovenia, Carla Ward was desperate for a positive reaction at the Theodoros Vardinogiannis stadium. But it required the half-time introduction of Marissa Sheva and Katie McCabe - initially rested due to a calf niggle - to shake Ireland into life.

Goals from Sheva, Kyra Carusa, Jessie Stapleton and Amber Barrett killed off the spirited Greek challenge, with McCabe central to everything good her side did on the turnaround. The 29-year-old offered yet more evidence of her enormous importance to Irish hopes of reaching the World Cup in 2027.

They welcome Greece to Tallaght on Tuesday looking to make this a perfect window and keep alive ambitions of achieving automatic promotion back to League A, but there'll be a few things to pore over in the post mortem.

Ward made four changes here: Stapleton, Megan Campbell, Tyler Toland and Leanne Kiernan all got the nod from the off.

Ireland toiled from the off on a sun-kissed pitch that appeared to hold up well having hosted Wednesday's Greek Cup semi-final between OFI Crete and Asteras Tripolis.

The hosts had their homework done - Greece targeted Ireland with early, direct ball any time they turned it over, just as Slovenia had done so emphatically back in February.

Four minutes in Anastasia Spyridonidou - who scored an injury-time equaliser against Ireland back in 2019 - popped a clever reverse ball to Ioanna Papatheodorou, and her angled effort flew wide. It was an early warning sign that Ireland struggled to heed.

They did try to settle into some sort of rhythm. Stapleton exuded confidence at