Ewa Pajor: How do Republic of Ireland stop Poland’s prolific striker?

The Republic of Ireland are under no illusion as to the threat that the Polish captain poses and need not look too far from home to see the damage she has previously inflicted.

Pajor netted twice in a 4-0 Poland win over Northern Ireland in May last year and scored two very different goals.

For the first she nipped in between three defenders to tap home from a low cross and for the second she stroked into an empty net after dispossessing goalkeeper Jackie Burns.

She has two goals from two games in this qualifying campaign, again very different in style.

For the opener in Poland’s 2-2 draw with the Netherlands, she charged into the box before rifling into the far corner and for Poland’s only goal in their 4-1 defeat by France, she held off two defenders before poking home with her range of different finishes further highlighting how difficult it is to contain Pajor.

“She’s obviously a really good player for Barcelona, highly rated,” defender Aoife Mannion told RTE when asked about the striker.

Ward also told The Halfway Line in March that Pajor was “world class”.

“She could play in any team in the world. She does it week in, week out for Barcelona, she’s a tremendous talent,” she continued.

In trying to limit Pajor’s influence, it goes without saying that Ward’s side will have to be defensively solid, particularly in Gdansk.

In their previous two games against France and Netherlands the Irish have deployed a back five of Mannion at right-wing back, Anna Patten, Caitlin Hayes and Chloe Mustaki as centre-backs and captain Katie McCabe at left-wing back.

Three of those five in Patten, Hayes and McCabe play in the Women’s Super League [WSL] against quality strikers such as Alessia Russo, Bunny Shaw and Vivianne Miedama week in week out while Mannion and Mustaki have previous top flight experience.

McCabe also has direct experience of coming up against the 29-year-old and got the better of Pajor in the Champions League final last year as Arsenal beat Barcelona 1-0 in the decider.

They will have to work as a unit to nullify Pajor and stop crosses at source to prevent her from getting on the end of deliveries, track her movements into the box as she likes to drop deep to start attacks and be aggressive at set pieces to prevent her from using her aerial threat.

Stopping Pajor from scoring in both games may not be enough to help Ward’s side to two victories but it will certainly be a good springboard in their quest to do so given how difficult a task it will be.