Robbie Brady’s second minute penalty had given Ireland a shock lead in Lyon and France was booed off at the interval after an insipid showing.
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Until the Antoine Griezmann Show got underway in the second half, France were staring at an early exit of their own tournament. It was hard for us, but mission accomplished. But they are also going to need deep resilience to cope with the obligation to keep winning. “There’s lots of emotion here in Lyon and we really need this great support from the fans”. We freed ourselves up but there were lots of fouls.
On Ireland’s first foray forward, France center half Adil Rami was hesitant and then caught out of position, slipping as he failed to deal with a cross from the left aimed for striker Daryl Murphy.
On the morning after the 2-1 loss to French, O’Neill was still feeling the pain of defeat but, overall, he said he was proud of how the team had performed at the tournament.
In his preferred role, Griezmann immediately reacted and scored twice in the space of three second-half minutes.
“We didn’t play well in the first half and we said things in the changing room”, explained the Atletico Madrid star.
“The manager brought Kingsley on, he caused some damage, I was closer to the striker and I hope we continue that way”, said Griezmann.
“Let’s not forget where we started from”, said the Italian, who will be taking over as Chelsea coach in the English Premier League next season.
Hosts France booked their place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA European Championships after surviving an early scare against the Republic of Ireland at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais.
The tournament cycle present obvious times to retire – there will be a rash of players and coaches stepping down after Euro 2016 and, as in the case of Argentina’s Lionel Messi, the Copa America.
“We really have to start our next match better. But we have a strong mentality”. If that’s enough to take us to the final, why not? Trailing 1-0 at half-time. But it was impossible that (we would be) going home now.
O’Neill added of Keane: “When Robbie doesn’t play – and obviously his career is in the latter stages – then we don’t actually have a natural goalscorer in that sense”. It allowed me and (centre-back partner Laurent) Koscielny to be further apart. He was lovely and could even have scored a hat trick.
This point has been further emphasised by Martin O’Neill during his final press conference in France because the Derryman went out of his way to praise the behaviour of every single supporter of the boys in green.
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Les Bleus, who will face England or Iceland on Sunday, rarely looked in danger after that owing to their numerical superiority and fresher legs, having had three extra days’ rest that O’Neill deemed “too much”.
