Martin O’Neill says the Republic of Ireland deserved to go through to the knock-out rounds of Euro 2016 following a gutsy performance against Italy in Lille.
His team dominated the game in terms of chances and possession and finally made the breakthrough with Robbie Brady’s late winner in a thrilling 1-0 victory over the Group E table-toppers.
Ireland now take on hosts France in Lyon on Sunday, kick-off 2pm, and O’Neill says his team are worth their place in the last 16.
“We deserved it,” he said, speaking on RTÉ Sport following another historic night for Irish soccer.
“I think that was a penalty kick in the first half and we felt a wee bit disheartened with that, but the lads picked themselves back up and the whole performance was fantastic.
“Everyone had a brilliant game. There’s a great old spirit there, spirit alone doesn't get you there, but we have an enormous spirit.
“The players who came in wanted to do well; Shane Duffy, Richard Kehoe - I could go through the whole team because they were all fantastic.
“We played so well against Sweden in the first game and maybe the other (Belgium) game came a bit too quickly, though that doesn’t matter because we didn’t play well enough, but tonight we were absolutely ready.
“To dominate for the amount of time as we did and play as well as we did throughout the 90 minute was fantastic.”
O’Neill paid tribute to the tens of thousands of Ireland fans who cheered on their team during the game at the Stade Metropole - and goalscorer Brady.
“We thought Wes (Hoolahan) was going to do it when he spurned that chance. Then Robbie Brady, who is a fantastic player…
“I don’t think he was ever going to miss - he went in as bravely as anything, it didn’t matter if he was going to get a bit of goalkeeper, and he deserved it and the team deserved it.
“The fans were just unbelievable - they kept us going throughout the evening and I think the players kept the fans going. It was a combination of both.”
