Northern Ireland Women's captain Marissa Callaghan and manager Alfie Wylie are ready to fight for points after their FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifying Group was announced.
The Senior Women will play in Group 3 against Norway, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and Slovakia.
Callaghan, who plies her trade for Cliftonville Ladies, shared her thoughts on the group: "I think it's a tough group obviously. Looking at the rankings, Norway are 11th and Netherlands are 12th so two tough opponents in the top seeds.
"Then we have Slovakia who we drew with recently in the Istria Cup and then the Republic of Ireland who we haven't played in a competitive match for a few years."
When asked about the squad's reaction to the draw, it's clear the excitement is building and there is a determination to cause a few upsets. The captain said: "We all have a whatsapp group so during the draw we were messaging each other and the girls are buzzing and up for the challenge.
"Each game will be tough being the fifth seed but we can only target the teams above. Recent results mean we can go out and get points against the lower ranked teams.
"If we can do well in our home games then the Republic of Ireland is just a bus journey down the road. We played Italy though in the last qualifiers and were one nil up with only a few minutes to go so we will definitely give every team a fight and the teams in our group will know that."
Manager Alfie Wylie has fond memories of facing Norway and shared his thoughts on the other teams in Group 3: "My greatest success as the women's coach was against Norway when we beat them 3-1 at Mourneview Park.
"Slovakia and Republic of Ireland will be the games to target and we haven't faced them in a competitive qualifier in my time. It's a brilliant time to be playing them as they are flying at the minute. It will be great to have a game close by for fans to also come and support us away from home."
Although they are the lowest ranked side in the group, Wylie doesn't believe that will faze his team. He said: "Every point we get will be a bonus as everyone will expect to beat us, but the pressure will be on our opponents and the challenge to us is to see if we can beat them. They are going to be very interesting matches.
"At the moment we are optimistic that we can get points and secure at least two victories if not more."
