Thomas Muller missed a fine chance to equalise at the other end in the closing stages, but Ireland held on for a crucial win, and after Scotland’s 2-2 draw against Poland, have a fine chance of reaching their second consecutive European Championships.
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“I was overwhelmed nearly because his first couple of years in the job were nearly disastrous”, said Des.
“If you’ve just beaten the world champions and you’re coming into the game on a downer then I don’t think you should be in the game”.
With the side sitting top of Group F going into this month’s double-header, it made sense for the Irish Football Association to make an early start on scouting potential training bases.
Michael O’Neill’s side beat Greece 3-1 in Belfast to seal qualification for next summer’s European Championships in France – prompting wild celebrations at Windsor Park at full-time.
“I’m naturally delighted to win the game”.
“Michael always felt fairly confident”.
Robert Lewandowski will prove why he is the world’s best striker when Poland go to battle with the Republic of Ireland tomorrow night.
“He put a tremendous effort into it. He was living here and he moved back to Edinburgh because he found himself going to watch club matches and not able to get home until the following day”.
Loew will not have injured Mario Goetze at his disposal with the midfielder pulling adductor muscles in the first half on Thursday while captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is highly doubtful with a similar injury sustained in the final training session before the match in Dublin. I genuinely believe, fitness and availability willing, we can go there with a real optimism.
Georgia may be out of the running for the top three places in Group D but they recorded a morale-boosting 4-0 win over Gibraltar on Friday, and coach Kakhaber Tskhadadze wants them to take a few renewed belief into the Germany clash.
“I have to admit we’re pretty well astounded at what has happened. As I said, we have got to make it mean something”.
Former Derby winger Jamie Ward, now with Nottingham Forest, played 81 minutes for Northern Ireland.
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“Unfortunately, we have still a long way to go”.
