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By Colette Carr
This international break is taking the Celts from South Dublin to South Korea and Scandinavia in between this time around, with Izzy Atkinson, Olivia Chance and Maria Olafsdottir Gros all swapping club for international duty.
Following their 3-1 win over Aberdeen, focus in the east end of Glasgow switched to the League Cup final, but there are six international fixtures between now and then featuring Celts from friendlies to World Cup Qualifiers.
Following a successful return from injury, dynamic and versatile forward Atkinson is heading back to her home county of Dublin for the Irish National Team’s vital next two World Cup Qualifiers. Vera Pauw’s side are looking to build on an impressive 2-1 away victory over Finland in their last qualifier after a disappointing campaign opener against Sweden.
Their crunch meeting with Slovakia tomorrow evening in Tallaght Stadium, with whom they have a game in hand over, could see them overtake them in Group A and move up from fourth with both currently sitting with three points.
Following that they host Georgia next Tuesday, with the Irish looking to rubber-stamp an important three points against the group’s bottom-placed side.
As joint-hosts of the 2023 World Cup with neighbours Australia, Chance’s New Zealand won’t face the qualification phases, and so have been testing themselves with a series of challenging friendly matches, and following last month’s double against Olympic champions Canada, they’re now headed east to Seoul in South Korea.
Chance and her international teammates will work under the guidance of new coach Jitka Klimková in the Czech’s second camp in charge and will face the Asian side twice in the space of four days.
Celtic’s Icelandic wide-player has returned to her homeland to link up with the under-19s and face a double-header against Sweden.
Iceland’s last outing against the Swedes was only back in September in their opening Euros qualifiers Round 1 group match in which Olafsdottir Gros started.
The 18-year-old helped put the young Stelpurnar okkar side ahead as Ólöf Sigríður Kristinsdóttir finished from her corner after just 20 minutes, but ultimately they narrowly missed out on a draw, as Sweden nudged ahead with a 90th minute winner.
Keep your eyes peeled on our social media for all the updates from our International Celts over the next week.
Republic of Ireland v Slovakia - 25 November
Republic of Ireland v Georgia - 30 November
New Zealand v South Korea - 27 November
New Zealand v South Korea - 30 November
Iceland v Sweden - 27 November
Iceland v Sweden - 29 November