WOMEN'S SOCCER/Republic of Ireland v Japan:THE REPUBLIC of Ireland women's under-17 side take on Japan in the Fifa World Cup quarter-final in Trinidad at midnight. Ireland are in superb form following their emergence from Group D as winners ahead of Brazil, Canada and Ghana. They lost 2-1 to Brazil in the opening game but they got their campaign back on track with two successive wins, over North American champions Canada (1-0) and Ghana (3-0).
Japan also go into the game in confident form following two 6-0 victories over Venezuela and New Zealand respectively after their opening 4-1 loss to European Champions, Spain.
Speaking on the eve of the clash, manager Noel King said: “Since our arrival at the tournament, we have been scouting and monitoring a number of teams, including Japan. We have already seen them play twice and have been looking at the DVDs from their previous games. There is no doubt they will be a massive test as they possess a different threat to our team which we may not have encountered so far.
“They are an incredibly strong side who like to play free-flowing, attacking football and after scoring 13 goals in the last three games, there’s no doubt they will be dangerous in front of goal. At this stage, I think everyone knows the style of football we possess. We will not be changing our system because I believe it will allow us to get at Japan both defensively and in attack. We also have a number of small knocks in the camp but hopefully the players will recover in time to face Japan.
“Those results have given the whole group the confidence and I really believe that the girls are not finished just yet,” he said.
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