Playing their first major tournament in more than three decades since the 1982 World Cup, Northern Ireland with its many players from second tier clubs suffered a late 1-0 loss against Poland, then beat Ukraine 2-0 before going down just 1-0 against world champions Germany.
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Gareth McAuley’s misery was compounded last night when the Northern Ireland defender was denied the opportunity to applaud their fans at the Parc des Princes because he was selected to take a post-match drugs test.
On Saturday another O’Neill – Michael – perhaps a direct descendant of that clan, would probably have emulated his ancestor if it would have helped his players overcome Wales for a place in the quarterfinals.
“Gareth McAuley knows he has to make one of those decisions on the cross – he had to judge whether there was someone behind him or not. I just don’t want to go to work”.
Northern Ireland scored the only goal in the game unfortunately for them it was an own goal that sent them packing from the European Championships. “They played well. We did not”.
As the game drew to a close, O’Neill chose to leave Grigg on the bench again which has caused uproar from fans all around the world.
Describing the goal, McAuley added: “Gareth Bale has got a fantastic ball into the box and I perhaps could have got a little less on it but [Robson-Kanu] was right behind me so I had to get something on it”.
One of the sensations of the first round, Wales had been impressive notably in a 3-0 victory over Russian Federation in which Bale shone along with energetic box-to-box midfielder Aaron Ramsey.
The score remained 1-0 to Chris Colemam’s charges at the full-time whistle, as they booked their spot in the Last Eight of the competition.
“We know no matter who we play it’s going to be a hard game, but we will be ready for it”. We hung on and we came through.
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Wales skipper Ashley Williams will know the full extent of his shoulder problem after scans tomorrow and whether he will be able to carry on leading out his team at Euro 2016. Bale drove the ball over the wall but Northern Ireland keeper Michael McGovern dove to his left and kept the ball out. “It hasn’t gone unrecognised from all the players”. We must enjoy this. “Truth be told, we need to be away from each other [the players], it’s been five weeks”.
