However, Northern Ireland can be extremely proud of how they played throughout the tournament, with players like Michael McGovern and Johnny Evans playing out of their skins to help them sneak out of a group they were widely expected to finish the bottom of.
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It was in one of these gaps that Bale found himself loitering in the 75th minute as Aaron Ramsey’s pass presented him with the time to measure a cross into the penalty area from the left. “You saw in the Wales game how we tried to run through brick walls for each other and make it happen, but unfortunately it didn’t”.
O’Neill, speaking about the loss to Wales, said he “felt it was a very tight game” so to lose the game the way the team did was “very, very cruel”. “We got a bit of luck with the goal we scored, it was unfortunate for big Gareth McAuley, but the luck came our way”.
Gareth McAuley was denied the chance to thank the Northern Ireland supporters for their efforts as he was hauled in for a drugs test after the defeat by Wales.
“What can I say?”
The match at the Parc des Princes in Paris was billed as the “Brexit” clash after Wales voted to leave the European Union in Thursday ” s referendum and Northern Ireland opted, without success, to remain.
“The feeling after was hard to describe, very happy, very emotional”, said Bale.
Who was Northern Ireland’s best player at the Euro 2016 finals?
“For us, or any team that was going to be playing in the round of 16 here, to be allocated less that 5,000 tickets is, I think, pretty unfair, honestly”.
But Wales was more unsafe after the break and will next play either Hungary or Belgium in the quarterfinals in Lille on Friday.
The goal was scrappy and ugly, a fine Bale cross turned accidentally into the net by Northern Ireland defender Gareth McAuley after 74 minutes, but Wales cared exclusively for the outcome and nothing for the means.
Hartson said: “Wales edged it. The two second half substitutions of Jonny Williams and Hal Robson-Kanu gave us fresh impetus and an outlet”.
“We are unlucky not to be going to the quarter-finals, for me”.
“With everyone behind us on this stage we really believed we could get something and there were periods in the game when we got the better of it, but it is gutting to go out to a situation like that”.
“I think it made it an interesting game and I think it is one that Wales will be very relieved to get through”.
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“There was so much riding on this game”, said Coleman.
