Last week, ahead of Republic of Ireland’s match again Belgium he wrote: “Huge day of Irish sport”.
Advertisement
Wednesday night’s dramatic 1-0 victory over Italy at the Stade Pierre Mauroy handed them a reunion with Henry’s compatriots in Lyon on Sunday, and revenge was very much in mind as delighted supporters headed off to make yet more travel arrangements.
Irish President Michael D Higgins, who was at the game and was said to be dancing in the stands after the goal, said it was a “wonderful achievement”.
The 34-year-old playmaker was presented with the flawless opportunity to fire the Republic of Ireland into the knockout stage of Euro 2016 when he went one-on-one with Italy keeper Salvatore Sirigu six minutes from time in Lille, only to come off second best. “I grew up dreaming about this stage and to go and do it in front of my family is the best feeling in the world”, said Brady, who reckoned that scoring the goal felt like “an out of body” experience. We’re playing against another good team, but we knew that if we were going to get out of the group, we were going to play top teams and we’re playing the hosts. I have been to some really big sporting events – a Champions League final, GAA finals and The Tour de France – but this was on a different level.
But Hoolahan was the source of the winning goal only a minute later as his cross from the right found Brady steaming in to head home.
“Unless I’ve come down from the moon and think Spain are just a sparring partner”. Ireland must win to have any chance of progressing as the second or third-place team in the pool. “We played against a side that played the game of their lives”. However, I’m going for a draw which is available at odds of 11/5 and for extra value, why not back El Shaarawy as the first goal-scorer in a scorecast at odds of 45/1.
We had to have everyone at it tonight, to not drop tempo. There was not a player who did not perform heroically. “It was going to be hard against Italy”, said Republic of Ireland goalscorer Brady. “It was awesome and I know in 30 years I’ll still be talking about the night in Lille when Robbie Brady scored against Italy”.
Advertisement
To have a look around and see what it means to everyone involved and me included… “We deserved to win”. Ireland will be happy they got the chance to get last use of a surface the Italians were so dissatisfied with.
