Martin O'Neill is adamant the Republic of Ireland's World Cup dream isn't over yet, despite a disappointing 1-0 qualifier defeat to Serbia in Dublin.
Ireland's first loss of the campaign and Wales' 2-0 victory in Moldova means O'Neill's men are likely to need six points in their last two group games - against that pair - to have a chance at making the play-offs.
"We're not beaten, far from it," he told RTÉ Sport. "We must win the last two games.
Martin O'Neill insists Ireland can still make it to the World Cup but they'll have to beat Wales and Moldova pic.twitter.com/XmpELmSPqh
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) September 5, 2017
"If we can beat Moldova then it sets it up for the final game. We have to go to Wales and win both matches.
"I've just said it to the players. Everybody's obviously down. It's the first time we've been beaten here for a long time but it's still in our hands.
"We can get to the play-offs, we can still make it. We're not finished in this competition.
"It's a bit like Italy (in Euro 2016). We know what we have to do."
O'Neill praised the two men he brought in at midfield, Wes Hoolahan and David Meyler, calling both "excellent", and said he felt he couldn't play Hoolahan for more than an hour given his tight groin.
Hoolahan's replacement Daryl Murphy forced a red card, went close to scoring and should have been awarded a penalty as Ireland pushed for an equaliser.
"I thought we played very well," O'Neill said. "The first half, urged on by the crowd, it was a really great effort by the team.
"We thought we could win the second half and the match. They got a break just after half-time, I'm not sure they had three attempts on goal the whole evening.
"We threw caution to the wind at the end to try and get something out of the game but it eluded us."
