Martin O’Neill has described Ireland’s 1-0 win over Italy as the greatest night of his career.
The Irishman experienced plenty of highs during his time in charge of Celtic and Leicester but last night’s success in Lille was on a different dimension.
Over eight days the Irish support experienced the ultimate roller-coaster watching their side go ahead against Sweden then draw, crash to Belgium then watch on as the clock ticked away towards their elimination from Euro 16.
When Wes Hoolihan missed a great chance in the 84th minute the night looked set to be remembered for heroic failure but within a minute Robbie Brady headed the only goal of the game and cast himself into Irish sporting folklore alongside Ray Houghton, Packie Bonner, Christy O’Connor Jnr and Eamonn Coghlan.
After a false alarm for the final whistle O’Neill raced onto the pitch to celebrate with his players and share an emotional salute in front of the fans that never stopped hoping and cheering throughout the evening.
Asked after the match if he had ever felt more pride in a performance the former Celtic boss said: “No, I don’t think I have. I’ve had some great nights but this is on a national level and relatively new to me. It’s very special tonight, we had enormous support and that kept us going. Throughout it the players and fans kept each other going.
“I got emotional at the end but it is a great win. I thought the chance had gone when the goalkeeper saved from Wes. We didn’t want it to be one of those ‘if only’ games. It looked as if we should have had a penalty but that doesn’t matter now. We deserved to win, we dominated and played some excellent stuff.”
Twelve months ago qualification looked beyond the Irish side but the spirit that took them past Italy had been in evidence earlier in the campaign when World Champions Germany were beaten in Dublin.
O’Neill added: “We have shown some fantastic results throughout the group stage to get here. This has been a two-year process to get ourselves here and we weren’t going to give it up tonight.
“Obviously it’s difficult playing such a relentless Italian side who were going to be hard to break down – we managed to do that. We have managed to beat some of the best teams in the world, so I don’t think we have anything to fear going into the weekend.
“We know they’re a top-class team and they have got some unbelievable players, but if we can stick together and click like we clicked tonight, we can hurt anybody, so I don’t think we have anything to fear. I think we can go as far as we allow ourselves in this tournament.”