“It does seem a disproportionate amount of time that one team has to recover from another”, O’Neill said.
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Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill is busy preparing himself for a last 16 battle with France on Sunday so it could be expected that tactics and personnel choices would be the main topics of conversation. We have made a decision to forget about (it) and that’s some doing coming from Ireland. I will not think about that for one second.
Thierry Henry’s handball helped keep Ireland out of the 2010 World Cup.
The players were given a rest today, with O’Neill admitting the players didn’t get to bed until after 5am as they celebrated into the early hours before settling down to the task of tackling France in Lyon.
He said: “We were delighted to win the game and be part of that evening and it was genuinely special”.
O’Neill revealed: “He was very complimentary, which was nice considering he’s been one of the great goalkeepers of all time”.
“I do understand as a host nation you should get some particular favors”.
“There’s a thought that a third game in nine days for some players in the team might present a problem”.
Both O’Neill and Keane often put up an impenetrable facade in public but in this moment you can see exactly what it meant to them.
O’Neill is the first Ireland manager to lead a team into the knockout stages of a European Championship, although he did enjoy a World Cup adventure as a player with Northern Ireland back in 1982.
Moments after Ireland’s win, he shared a close-quarters hug with assistant coach Roy Keane, a former tough-talking – and even harder tackling – midfielder for Ireland and Manchester United.
He claims that Keane told him that he was “an ugly sod” and that he replied with a barb about the Corkman’s beard.
“I then retorted and said he wasn’t Paul Newman either”.
Ireland’s Robbie Keane celebrates at the end of the Euro 2016 Group E soccer match between Italy and Ireland at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve d¿Ascq, near Lille, France, Wednesday, June 22, 2016.
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MARTIN O’NEILL SAYS Ireland have made a decision to forget about the controversial Thierry Henry handball incident that ultimately proved pivotal in the team’s 2010 World Cup play-off defeat against France.
