Banyana Banyana went down 2-0 to South Korea in their opening match on Wednesday, but the University of Johannesburg striker believes they can grow from their mistakes.
"In both games (the friendly) against New Zealand and the opening game against South Korea there were positives and some negatives," said Matlou.
"We played well and created chances but we need to be more clinical when it comes to our finishing.
"We also made some mistakes which our opponents capitalised on but we have to learn from them, regroup and focus on the next game."
Republic of Ireland are currently at the top of Group C following their 5-1 win over Northern Ireland, but the 27-year-old says they are determined to get a positive result from the game.
"We have to go out there and play as a team and make sure we concentrate throughout the match," said Matlou.
"They are a tough team, we know what to expect from them but I believe they also did their homework on us.
"It's going to be a difficult game but we have to pick ourselves up because we know that we are capable of doing more than what we showed in the first game.
"We'll go out there and give everything to try to win the game"
Banyana will play their last Group C match against Northern Ireland on Monday afternoon before preparing for their play-off fixture.