A delighted James McClean took to social media to convey his joy to his thousands of fans minutes after the Republic of Ireland qualified for the 2016 European Championship finals on Monday evening. And going into the back to back Germany and Poland games, I feared the worst. I made a decision at a very young age to play for Ireland at 16/17 when I was asked and I’m sure she was smiling down at me tonight. But we’ll have a look at that.
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Keane bagged five goals in qualification – hitting the fastest hat-trick (18 minutes) in European qualification history against Gibraltar last October – and notched another two against the minnows in Faro.
“We won’t be short on hunger and desire and determination, and with the players and the manager we have, hopefully we’ll give every team we play a good game”.
Murphy crossed from the right side of the penalty area and the ball flashed off Zukanovic’s arm from point-blank range, with the Bosnia defender clearly trying to pull his arm to his chest to avoid handling it.
Results against Scotland had been particularly disappointing for Ireland during the campaign, losing to Gordon Strachan’s men away and only managing a draw against them on home turf. “It’s just Spain and all the rest of them”.
‘This is where I always wanted to be, getting into the squad was the first big thing for me and now to be in the team for 10 games in the qualifying campaign is a great feeling.
“Even when they are not in the starting XI, it’s what they bring to the dressing room and the training pitch. But players do need time on the field because it is important for fitness and important for confidence and if you’re doing well, the higher up you’re playing in, obviously the more confident you’re going to be coming into a tournament if you get picked”. I don’t know. As I said, I’m enjoying this and it is great to be back working with Martin, the staff, the players and the FAI. He knows that I still have that ambition to get back into club management.
However, O’Neill opted to leave the experienced trio of Robbie Keane, John O’Shea and Shane Long all on the substitutes’ bench, despite the latter two having returned from suspension and injury respectively.
“I am going to meet Martin in the next couple of weeks to have a chat and to see where he stands”, he told The Mirror.
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He said: “They [Long and Jay Rodriguez] are close but it is too fast for them to be part of the team and I hope the worldwide break gives them the opportunity to recover their freshness and physically so as to be prepared for the next one [the Premier League game against Stoke City]”. “Ireland certainly benefited from that and I think we will benefit from that in the future”.
