Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, none of whom are regular qualifiers for tournaments will all have to make do with a place in the last of the four pots.
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By qualifying in his first campaign in charge, O’Neill became only the fourth Ireland manager to reach a major tournament, but he refused to bask in the glory, instead putting all the focus on his players.
Recruited at considerable expense, Ireland’s coaching duo struggled to fire up the side early on in qualification but Ireland became an increasingly hard opponents, epitomised in Monday’s 2-0 victory that secured a 3-1 win on aggregate. I don’t think they had anything left to give.
“The esteem I hold these players in it couldn’t be higher. They don’t have everything, but courage and determination are things they have in abundance”.
O’Neill singled out Ireland’s two-goal hero, Jon Walters, for special praise, declaring: “There’s been a number of fantastic performances and I think Walters has topped the lot – he’s just been sensational”.
“You’re always looking for more quaIity and more options, but we’ve got work-rate, desire and while there’s moments you are nervous in any game, I always believed we would win against Bosnia”.
“It is going to be fantastic for them”, he said.
“It’s unbelievable. We’re through and that’s all that matters”, he said.
“You’ve got to take it in because these moments don’t come round often in a career”. “They have put heart and soul into the games, they’ve carried us through matches when maybe we’ve missed that piece of absolute genius”, O’Neill told a news conference.
“We never seem to do things the easy way, but we stuck together during the campaign and got the incredible results we needed”.
“Without a doubt we had a very tough group”.
O’Neill said: “I’m sure there are better words than “special” because I have used it a few times now, but it’s very, very special”.
Walters kept his cool though from the spot by sending his former Stoke teammate Begovic the wrong way from the penalty spot after 24 minutes, with the Aviva Stadium erupting with joy as the ball hit the back of the net.
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And Keane added: “Will this get me back in the window?” In the end we did well, although the referee was 70-30 in favour of the Irish. I’ve enjoyed working with the players and am little bit more hands-on now, which I have enjoyed.
