Katie McCabe breaks her silence in emotional message after ...

KATIE McCABE has issued a stirring call to arms after Ireland's heartbreaking 1-0 defeat to Australia - that's been met with an equally defiant reaction from her teammates.

The Arsenal star played her heart out as The Girls in Green limited their highly-fancied co-hosts to minimal chances but did fall to Stephanie Catley's 52nd minute penalty.

The 27-year-old did toe the line at times with some of her challengesCredit: @katie_mccabe11 Ireland will need to get her on the ball in more advanced positions for the remainder of the competitionCredit: @katie_mccabe11 She and the team will now fly five hours to Perth for Wednesday's encounter with Canada at 1 pm Irish timeCredit: Getty

She took to social media in the hours afterwards to thank the sizeable Irish support in Stadium Australia which was estimated at around 15k.

As well as reflecting on an 'incredible' occasion, she set out the team's stall that they've already moved on to Wednesday's match-up versus Canada.

She wrote: "Last night was incredible - thank you to all our fans for the amazing atmosphere you created last night for us.

"Disappointed we couldn’t get more from the game but we’ll rest up, recover and go again!"

Morale across the group remains high despite not managing to snag a late equaliser in spite of sustained pressure over the final 20 minutes.

This was evident in various post-match interviews as well as the reactions to McCabe's Instagram post.

For instance, towering Louise Quinn replied 'Oh captain!' while her centre-back partner Niamh Fahey commented 'Capitano' followed by a flexing emoji.

Ireland can take additional heart from how the Olympic champions fared in their opening fixture overnight against supposed Group whipping girls Nigeria.

The contest ended in a 0-0 draw with chances at a premium with the exception of Christine Sinclair seeing her penalty well saved.

The 40-year-old, who has a whopping 323 caps and 190 international goals to her name, saw her low shot well denied by Super Eagles keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie.

VAR was at the heart of the match's other significant moment too as it had to be called upon before a 98th minute red card was rightfully dished out to Nigeria's Deborah Ajibola Abiodun.

She had gone in very recklessly with her studs landing right into Ashley Lawrence's ankle such that it bent backwards in a sickening slow-motion replay.

CAN DO THEM

Like Ireland's Sydney date, this fixture was played on Australia's east coast in Melbourne.

So there's negligible difference in travel time for Vera Pauw's team or the Canadians as they both embark upon 4-5 flights to Perth for Wednesday's encounter.

While the Irish camp have been accentuating the positives from their opening game, it was a different story for the North Americans.

They seem to have viewed their affair as two points dropped.

Speaking afterwards, their coach Bev Priestmann said: "We've got to move on very quickly.

"You know, you can get lost and be really down on that.

"Of course the team and I am devastated. We didn't get three points.

"But at the end of the day we got one and we took two from another team."