“Individually maybe the players felt they could have done better, collectively we couldn’t have asked for any more than that”.
Advertisement
“This team is very experienced and we know that this was just only the first match”, he said. “I urge the community to rally round the family circle by remembering them in their thoughts and prayers at this exceptionally hard time”.
We were all in shock and sadness when we heard of the death of a Northern Ireland fan in Nice, young Darren Rodgers.
The defeat ended Northern Ireland’s 12-game unbeaten run after they had topped their qualifying group for the tournament in France.
“The whole atmosphere was one of great excitement, great joy, all the Northern Ireland fans and Polish fans were having a tremendous experience, a tremendous time together”, she said.
“It puts into perspective everything for the players”.
“All through the campaign and even more so here, the fans have been a huge part of everything that has gone well for Northern Ireland”.
“I believe it was an accident – not in any way disorder-related, obviously a personal tragedy”.
And Irish Football Association chief executive Patrick Nelson confirmed the intention to honour the supporter on Thursday, when Michael O’Neill’s side play Ukraine.
“At times early on we were nearly overpowered by their physical strength”, he said.
“We gave it our all but it was not good enough”, Irish captain Steven Davis said.
The Hornets defender, who was booked in the 69th minute after clattering Robert Lewandowski while restricting the Bayern Munich star’s impact throughout, did try and set up some attacks for his teammates with some long passes forward after they had fallen behind.
Arkadiusz Milik broke the resistance of Northern Ireland and earned Poland their first UEFA European Championship finals win at the seventh time of asking.
“It was a massive game for us to come in, (with) fantastic support and the prestige of the game”.
Advertisement
“We were in the game for 90 minutes, we were not playing in a game where it’s the last 20 minutes and we’re 3-0 down and nothing to play for”, he stated.
