Draw would have been a fair result says Ireland manager after World Cup opener 

Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw says that the team can ‘only grow’ from their 1-0 defeat to Australia as they prepare to take on Canada and Nigeria, with Canada up next on Wednesday morning.

The coach was speaking to RTÉ after a game that was decided by Steph Catley’s penalty in the 55th minute at a sold out Stadium Australia.

Ireland rallied after this, with the introduction of Abbie Larkin and Lucy Quinn re-energising the side at they pushed for a late equaliser.

The two chances to make it 1-1 was a free-kick that Megan Connolly took and a shot from Katie McCabe that was saved.

“I think that a draw would have been a reasonable result,” Pauw said.

“Of course that does not count. I think everybody is proud that we have showed that we are part of the top nations. 

"That we can only grow from this.” 

After taking a second to reflect, she gave an honest assessment of the result.

“It is very disappointing,” she explained.

“We said at half-time that this is a game that will be decided by one mistake whenever it is them of us and that is what happened.” 

When asked about the penalty, Pauw refrained from giving an opinion as she had not seen the incident back.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen it on the bench. I was more interested in what was happening over there. I have to review it. I don’t know,” she explained.

Despite all of this, the Ireland manager was proud of her players over their performance against Australia.

“I’m very proud of that,” she said. 

“We brought on Abbie (Larkin) and Lucy (Quinn) to get more pressure going forward. They came out very well at the end, as you could see.

“They put more pressure on them with Louise (Quinn) up front. That is when you need to have a little bit of luck.

“Sam Kerr is one of the major top strikers in the world. She’s not playing? Of course that is an advantage to us.

“They have such a powerful team and it is difficult to play against them. I think that we did so well. 

"They did not create a lot of chances.” 

As for McCabe, the Irish captain that had a chance to equalise in the final few seconds, she wants to focus on the positives ahead of the game against Canada.

“I think little Larko (Abbie Larkin) and Linso (Izzy Atkinson) brought a lot of energy,” she said.

“The Aussies were tiring out towards the end and we wanted to continue to get pressure on them.

“We created a lot of set piece opportunities. I think the second half shows a better account of ourselves and we’ll look to take the positives into the second game against Canada.

“They enjoyed it, I think everyone enjoyed it. There were a few tough moments and as I said earlier on in the week, we don’t shy away from that. 

"We love the physicality of the game. It was an enjoyable game.

“This is the top level now. We know if we make mistakes at this level we’ll be punished at this level. 

"There’s absolutely lots of positives to take from it. We got the ball in nice wide areas and got crosses into the box and tried to pick up on set pieces.

“Of course we want to improve our final third entries and getting shots away at goal. 

"But we will be looking to recover now and push on for Canada.”