The Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team will take on World Number one the United States in two International Friendly games in April as part of their preparations for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

Vera Pauw’s squad have already faced Morocco, Germany, and China since the World Cup draw was made and these next two games will be added to a schedule that also includes home matches against Zambia (June 22) and France (July 6).

The games are a solid reminder of the quality and the anticipation that comes with qualification for a major finals.

The doubleheader with the United States will be the first meeting between the teams since August 2019 and will act as the 14th and 15th games overall. The first match will be played in Austin, Texas on Saturday, April 8 with the second match being hosted in St. Louis, Missouri on Tuesday, April 11.

“When we qualified for the World Cup we immediately set to work on preparing the best possible schedule to ensure that our team faced the type of challenges and intensity that they will need to cope with in Australia,” said Manager Vera Pauw.

“We believe that we have the best programme to prepare for our first-ever World Cup.”

“The opportunity to play two games against the number one team in the world is fantastic for us as it will put us under the kind of pressure that we need to experience as a team.”

“We will benefit so much more from playing against top quality teams as those games help us to raise our performance and learn how to adapt in difficult situations.”

“The quality that the USA is pretty clear to see with their recent history, their strength in depth, and having a very good Head Coach, so we are excited to play these two games. We also know that there are a lot of fans in the United States with Irish connections, so we hope that they will come out to support us.”

A reminder as well that another tranche of tickets to follow the Girls in Green down under will go on sale at noon tomorrow Australian Eastern time, 1 AM tonight in Ireland.

Ticket prices start at ¢20 and will be sold on a first come first served basis at FIFA.COM/TIXKETS.

Broadcast details will be announced in due course.