MEGAN CAMPBELL IS confident Ireland can reach their first-ever major tournament in the 2023 World Cup ahead of today’s European play-off draw.
Vera Pauw’s side secured a seeded place and first-round bye after Tuesday’s 1-0 qualifier win in Slovakia, and will learn their fate this afternoon from 12.30pm [live on Uefa website, format here].
It’s an open draw, and Ireland will face either Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland or Wales in a one-off home or away showdown on 11 October.
Liverpool defender Campbell, who ended a three-year wait for a return to the Girls In Green XI with back-to-back starts against Finland and Slovakia, is hopeful for progression thanks to their solid defence.
Ireland conceded just four goals in Group A, with only eight teams overall conceding less.
And long-throw specialist Campbell believes that sends a message to their potential play-off opponents.
“In every group, I think we’re up there in the top-10 of least goals conceded,” she pointed out.
“That’s something we pride ourselves on, not conceding goals. That’s Ireland through and through. Defence is something that we’ve got in our blood, you’re going to put your body on the line no matter what.
“We’ve worked really hard on our mid and low block to be able to frustrate teams and not give them those opportunities. I think it does send a message out that we’re not going to be easy to beat going into the play-offs now, no doubt we’ll get to the World Cup — I mean one step at a time, but it definitely gives opponents a worry, ‘How we’re going to score goals,’ and for us, that’s massive.
“We pride ourselves on clean sheets, I think that’s four in-a-row now for Courtney [Brosnan] and the goalkeeping staff. It’s massive for us.”
Campbell and co. are currently 26th in Fifa’s world rankings, in or around the middle of the nine play-off teams. Iceland (14th), Belgium (19th) and Austria (20th) are the top three, with Portugal (27th), Wales (30th), and Bosnia (63rd) below them.
The European play-offs will decide two automatic qualifiers and one team heading to the inter-confederation play-offs. Of the three second-round winners, the pair with the highest ranking (based on results in the qualifying group stage and Round Two play-offs) will qualify for next summer’s finals in Australia and New Zealand, while the other nation head Down Under for a 10-team tournament next February, with the last three qualifying spots on offer there.
Convoluted route aside, Campbell believes this group deserves to appear at a World Cup.
“100%. There’s players in this squad that have been here years, there’s players in this squad that have been here only two or three months, but it shows the vast difference and the levels, it spreads the whole way across no matter what age you are. I think those girls that have been here for years deserve that.
“It goes back to we wouldn’t be in this position without the likes of Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant, Yvonne Tracy, Niamh Fahey, Olivia [O'Toole] — there’s so many players I could name, without them we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t be stood in this position, going into a play-off, representing our country at this level.”
Campbell is more than delighted to be herself, the Drogheda native’s career threatened by a horrendous sequence of serious knee and ankle injuries over the past few years.
Starting in green for the first time since October 2019 at left-wing back, the 29-year-old put in two big shifts against the Finns and Slovaks, clocking up almost 170 minutes across five days.
“Just about still together but nah, we’re all good,” she laughed after the Senec showdown, having finally won her 43rd and 44th caps. “I wanted to give everything I had until I couldn’t run no more. Thankfully I was able to run right until the 90, I was happy with that.
“Obviously with Liverpool I’ve worked on my schedule hard to get myself in a position where I can play consistently week in, week out. Coming into camp, that was something that was agreed upon, we’ve worked really hard to get it to that point so I’m very happy with that and happy to be available for selection.”
With a “completely different” training regime to the rest of the Irish group, as confirmed by Pauw, Campbell is returning to her brilliant best, defying the odds having thought she wouldn’t be involved in this campaign.
“Definitely not. The way that the team have grown, I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to come back into the squad and be selected, even if fit, because the girls have come a long way and there’s a lot of them now playing professionally. The level has stepped massively up. For me, it was just about keeping my head down, working hard and if the opportunity came for me to play again for the national team, obviously I was going to take it with both hands.”
That she has, and Campbell is confident Ireland can do the same as they break new ground in the play-offs.
