• Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Tokyo 2020 Preview: Ireland v Great Britain (W)

The final day of pool stage action at Tokyo 2020 sees Great Britain’s women come up against Ireland with both teams looking to secure their places in the quarter-finals.

Mark Hager’s side know a point will be enough to see them qualify but they will want more than that against their local rivals. Ireland will also be looking to cause an upset by recording a victory that could see them reach final eight.

When is it?

There’s plenty of time for a lie in before this game as it gets underway at 12:45 BST

How can I follow?

The game will be streamed on Discovery+ and potentially shown on BBC One/iPlayer/Red Button as well – we will know more information closer to pushback. You can also keep up-to-date with live text updates on our dedicated Match Centre.

Tokyo 2020 so far

It’s been a mixed bag for Great Britain’s women, who put in impressive performances to beat both South Africa and India 4-1 after a 2-1 defeat by Germany. They then lost 1-0 to The Netherlands but will take plenty of heart as they dominated much of the game against the current world number one outfit.

Ireland created history by winning their first ever match at an Olympics as they overcame South Africa 2-0. They battled hard against The Netherlands and Germany in their next matches but lost 4-0 and 4-2 respectively before suffering a 1-0 loss to India in their fourth game. They currently sit in the final quarter-final place but will need at least a point from this one.

Olympic history 

This will be the first meeting between the two teams at an Olympics.

Recent history

This will also be the first competitive meeting between the two teams in a long, long time. However they have faced each other in a number of unofficial games throughout 2021 so far. 

They started with three games in Ireland back in March, with both teams taking a victory apiece whilst the other game was a draw. Ireland then visited Bisham Abbey in April-May, with Great Britain winning three games and the other being a 0-0 draw.