Wales manager Rhian Wilkinson stated her side are in a fantastic position as they head to war in their second leg play-off final fixture in Dublin on Tuesday night.
Wilkinson’s side were held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg fixture at The Cardiff City Stadium and now head to the away fixture needing to win to secure their place at Euro 2025 in what would be their first time at a major tournament.
Rhian Wilkinson insists Wales need to believe in their ability
“I look forward to going to war as a team, because that’s the exciting part, Wales loves adversity this is what I’ve learnt”, said Wilkinson following the draw in South Wales.
“The second leg all square in Dublin, of course we would have liked to come out with a win but well take it, well head to Dublin and put in a performance we know we can be proud of and we hope that ends up as a win but at the of the day we’ve got to look at each other and say we gave it everything we have and that’s all I can ask for.
We put in a performance that I know our welsh fanbase would have been proud of in terms of the battle and the fight for one another and the never quit. I love football, I think its beautiful when you see a team connecting and creating opportunities together through movement and we just didn’t see enough of it.
I’m not worried about my team being overwhelmed by the occasion because the nerves have happened, we have one game in front of us and its all square so what’s to lose, we step forward and go to war, this is why we play international football is because games have consequence and this is it.
We’ve put ourselves in a fantastic position, yes we would have liked to be ahead going into it but equally I’ve said it before this team loves a challenge and to win in Dublin, to win at home at Cardiff its gone be great no matter where we do it.
its about my team believing in themselves, believing how good they are because they are really good and showing up in a way that no matter what the result is we can hold our heads high.”
Rhian Wilkinson on the growth of women’s football
The fixture was played in front of a crowd of 16,845 the largest crowd for a female fixture for Wales showing the ever growing popularity of the women’s game. The Wales boss spoke passionately about the legacy that is being left by these players;
“I’d like to congratulate Ireland as well because the legacy piece that these women are leaving is something phenomenal, no matter who goes through at the end the game will be winning because the women’s game is growing and its growing with real purpose.
With that many fans it really truly sounds like a noise, it could be cheering it could be booing its a noise and its a big noise because a big crowd has turned up.
Its not always an easy life being a female footballer its tough, there are some perks but a lot of it is graft and you do it for nights like tonight where you get to stand with your teammates, family and friends in the stands and be proud of being Welsh in front of a pretty amazing crowd.
The game is right at the start of the moment, its in front of us, how quickly its grown how these women have gone from a thousand fans to sixteen thousand at Cardiff City Stadium its incredible but it’s also just the beginning, the women’s game is on a trajectory that no one has ever seen before, the women’s game is not going anywhere which is exciting.”
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