Poland marched into their first ever European Championship quarter-final after producing five flawless penalties in the shoot-out.
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Will Grigg might have become the unlikely phenomenon of Euro 2016 but the Northern Ireland forward conceded it was “massively disappointing” to be denied playing time during his country’s run in France.
“It’s devastating. We were the better team on the day”, O’Neill said.
After topping their group ahead of England with convincing performances, Wales showed they knew other ways to win by edging out a battling Northern Ireland in a messy British derby to reach the Euro 2016 quarter-finals.
However, when observing the bigger picture, the 24-year-old highlighted a journey that has taken him from working part-time as a postman at the last Euros to being mentioned by World Cup victor Mats Hummels four years on.
It was a lifeless first half which saw both sets of fans producing more quality than their players on the pitch.
“I can’t choose (who to play)”, said Bale.
“Lady luck shone on us tonight and I think we earned it”, Coleman said.
“It was an awesome experience that I’ll never forget”.
Wales will now play either Belgium, who they faced in qualifying, or Hungary in Lille on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.
“We have turned up and we have shown our team spirit, our passion”, Bale said. We have to keep riding this wave.
His night was over after the missed opportunity, as Wales coach Chris Coleman opted to bring on Hal Robson-Kanu who scored that crucial victor against Slovakia in the group stages.
“I couldn’t ask anything more of the players throughout the whole tournament”.
The craft and guile that Wales needed to break them down was lacking in a woeful first half, where the nearest Coleman’s side came to breaking the deadlock was an Aaron Ramsey effort that was rightly ruled out for offside after 18 minutes.
It was a game Bale branded “ugly”, and few of the fans in the French capital or watching around the world would disagree.
“We had to be patient”, said Bale, a two-time Champions League victor with Real Madrid. They were probably the better team today.
“We knew those of us up front weren’t going to get a lot of the ball because they would close us down and it would be a frustrating night”.
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Suitably, each member of the team present was called out individually, while the backroom staff and manager Michael O’Neill were given their dues on stage.
