Wales manager Coleman told BBC One: “It is wonderful, first and foremost I have to say commiserations to Michael and his team, they were better than us today and made it hard”.
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It was his wonderful cross from the left that was turned into his own net by Gareth McAuley, with Hal Robson-Kanu breathing down his neck, to take Wales into the last eight.
The 3-year-old girl hasn’t been seeing much of Gareth Bale lately, and the Welsh nation will be hoping they’ll have to wait a bit longer before being able to spend any quality time together.
“It was a classic example today, Northern Ireland were the underdogs and you wouldn’t have thought that looking at the game – that is football”.
“I don’t usually get emotional coming off the pitch but I was close to tears doing the interview straight after the game”, Davis added. I haven’t seen them for four or five weeks.
“It’s devastating when the final whistle goes and you realise you’re out”, said the QPR forward.
Hungary and Belgium will meet in Toulouse on Sunday night to decide who plays Wales in Lille.
“Luckily enough we got it and the ball was in the back of the net”.
“It was an fantastic experience that I will never forget”.
Whenever Chris Coleman’s players return from France – and it could be a while yet – the homecoming is guaranteed to be more lively than the last and only other occasion they reached the quarter-finals of a major tournament. “And our ambition is to keep fighting on”.
For much of Saturday’s game, Northern Ireland successfully nullified Bale.
“We played so well against Russian Federation, which was a complete performance, but there was so much riding on this game”. He hardly created a chance and the only Wales shot on target in the match was a Bale free kick that goalkeeper Michael McGovern did well to save.
“But we’ve battled today, shown our team spirit and passion and we just want to carry on riding this wave”.
In a drab British derby, it was the Northern Irish looking more risky in front of goal at the Parc des Princes in the first half of their first major tournament since the 1986 World Cup.
“We had to be patient”, said Bale, a two-time Champions League victor with Real Madrid.
The Wales bench were generous with their applause for the Irish players as they trooped off the pitch and it continued afterwards when Coleman accepted that his team’s victory was “ugly”.
“It’s a very, very cruel way to lose a game and I don’t think we deserved to lose it with a goal of that nature”.
But Northern Ireland, which won plaudits for frustrating Germany in a 1-0 loss to the world champions earlier this week, certainly made the Welsh work hard for their first-ever tournament knockout stage win. And that is thanks to a Gareth McAuley own goal.
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Wales fan Greg Mason, 41, from London, said: “There’s been good banter on the train with some Northern Ireland fans but I think we’ll win tomorrow”.
