When and where?
Ireland are the challengers in Thursday’s Group B clash. They face World Cup hosts Australia in Sydney’s Stadium Australia in front of a sell-out crowd of 82,500 at 8pm local time – that’s 11am Irish time.
How can I watch it?
The match – like all 64 matches of the competition – will be live on RTÉ. Coverage starts at 10.30am on RTÉ 2. If you can’t get to a TV screen, all the action will be covered live on irishtimes.com, with extensive analysis and reaction throughout on our dedicated microsite.
Who else is playing?
The first match of the competition will kick-off at 8am Irish time when co-hosts New Zealand take on Norway in Group A. That’s also live on RTÉ 2, if you fancy it.
At 3.30am (Irish time) on Friday morning, we’ll have our first chance to suss out Ireland’s other opponents in Group B when Nigeria and Canada play at the pragmatically-named Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
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What happened the last time?
It’s not that long ago that these sides met in Tallaght Stadium. In September 2021, Lucy Quinn, Denise O’Sullivan and Louise Quinn all got on the scoresheet as Ireland ran out 3-2 winners over The Matildas. It’s worth noting that it wasn’t a competitive match, however.
What are Ireland’s chances?
Ireland are the underdogs. Australia are co-hosts, and will have plenty of support in Stadium Australia – plus they’re ranked 10th in the Fifa rankings, with some star names in their line-up, like Chelsea’s Sam Kerr.
But there’s always a chance. Ireland will be hungry as they go searching for a win on their debut performance at a major tournament.
Team news
The main talking point in the lead-up to Thursday morning’s match will be the fitness of Denise O’Sullivan.
Last Friday night, Ireland’s warm-up match against Colombia was called off after 20 minutes following an incident that saw O’Sullivan transferred to hospital with a shin injury.
The news from the Ireland camp so far has been positive: Gavin Cummiskey reports that O’Sullivan is expected to train fully on Wednesday, 24 hours before kick-off in Sydney.
O’Sullivan has completed two light sessions since Sunday and the FAI report that “everything is going according to plan with her return to play procedure”.
Other than that, Vera Pauw is looking towards Thursday with a healthy panel of players. Her starting XI will be announced on Thursday.
