Amber Barrett and Tyler Toland are likely to see action this evening for the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team as they face Italy in a friendly.
Colin Bell has a full squad available, including the Donegal duo, for the fixture in the Mapei Stadium (5.30pm Irish time).
Peamount United striker Barrett and Kildrum Tigers midfielder Toland have become key cogs in the Irish wheel.
The squad has been together since last Monday, with the players presented with their caps for their 2018 appearances in the Irish colours.
Ireland Head Coach Colin Bell said his squad is looking good and are all very much looking forward to the fixture against Italy.
He said: “We’ve had a very good camp with some good quality training; the players are looking individually very good and tactically strong. These are the tests that we need, we need to be competing against top nations to see how far we’ve come and how far we have to go.”
Bell feels that his Irish side have a good chance of doing well against the Italian team that are preparing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France this summer.
Bell said: “Personally, I’ve always been a big fan of Italian football and Italian coaches, so it’s going to be very exciting to play the game here.
“The girls have worked really well and now it’s just a case of putting what we’ve done in training into practice in the game and reacting to every situation as well as we can.
“I think they’ll start very aggressively and with a high tempo. They are preparing for the World Cup so they will obviously want to push themselves, it’s a home crowd, all these things will play a role.
“We’ll have to weather that storm to start off with and make sure that we stay organised and take that pressure. But that’s what we expect when we play in the European qualifiers against Germany and the Ukraine, so we must learn to deal with those kind of situations.”
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