Ireland Woman's football manager Colin Bell says the Dutch are coming to Dublin "not to beat us, to thrash us".
Bell was speaking to Off The Ball's Will O'Callaghan's after his side's 2-1 victory over Slovakia, and said they would be ready for the challenge of The Netherlands, who travel to Ireland as favourites despite a no score draw in the reverse fixture.
"European champions, I don't think I need to say anything else apart from we drew with them 0-0, they were really disappointed with that result, and they're coming here not to beat us but to really thrash us. That's their aim, and we have to be on our guard now.
With both sides entering the game undefeated and on ten points each, this game couldn't potentially be the decider for who tops the table come the end of qualification. Despite Ireland's result in the first fixture, Bell said that his side have to be cautious and deal with the absence of important players.
Stephanie Roche, Meghan Campbell, Harriet Scott are all set to miss the game, and Bell noted the loss of Scott in particular, as the Irish Player of the Year had a dominant display against the former Liverpool forward Shanice Van de Sanden in the first clash.
"We don't have Harriet Scott who marked out Van Der Sanden that night, it was a brilliant performance from her. So we've got to find answers now, we've got to regroup. Now I can start thinking about the Dutch match and what we have to do, but we're going to have to be really, really on our guard because they don't want to beat us, they want to hammer us".
Ireland beat Slovakia thanks to goals from Leanne Keirnan and a late strike from Amber Barrett, but didn't have it all their own way in a game they could have easily have dropped points in had they not up their performance in the second half, something Bell noted and praised.
"It was a bit of a scrap. Conditions didn't help, they made the game very difficult indeed, they definitely influenced the game and you have to adapt but unfortunately we didn't do that so intelligently in the first half.
"We sorted it out and did better in the second half. It was a well deserved win, we were the more active team, but unfortunately we gave them the chance to get back into the game with a bizarre goal".
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