When captains were needed on the pitch, Seamus Coleman stepped up.
Coleman might be behind the likes of Robbie Keane, Glenn Whelan and Shay Given in the official pecking order but, in the absence of that trio, the Donegal man was handed the captain’s armband.
Proudly he wore it and loudly he embraced it as Coleman guided the Republic of Ireland to an historic victory in Lille, cemented by a late Robbie Brady winner but ensured by a refusal to give up.
The Everton right back led from defence but, according to manager Martin O’Neill, it was Coleman’s words before kick-off that set the tone for the side’s mindset against Italy.
You have to love this intensity from the #irl captain
Seamus Coleman #coybig #ita #EURO2016 #ITAIRL #ItaliaIrlandapic.twitter.com/jbuEzyxvyI— Tim McCarthy (@timjmccarthy) June 22, 2016
“He’s an impressive, young man,” O’Neill said on Thursday. “He’s a very quiet, young man, but he’s shown a great intensity in this competition. He’s ready for it.
“He embraced the captaincy, took it in his stride. I thought he was a captain in everything he did.
“A couple of players mentioned that he was inspirational in his little speech to the players, which was great.”
O’Neill also spoke passionately about how important it was for the late winner to arrive, not just to secure qualification for Ireland but to prove to the players that a performance of that quality and energy would ultimately pay dividends.
He continued: “We needed to seal that performance last night with a win because I don’t think we wanted to go home feeling that it was a great performance, we should have had a penalty but didn’t, Wes should have scored but didn’t and, do you know what, in two days’ time, it’s forgotten.
“We’ve come up big at the end of the game and deservedly so, but for that to mean that we have qualified and gone through, it was just immense in that sense, so at least we will take great pride in that.”
