One of the immortal goals of Irish football.
Jeff Hendrick, Harry Arter, James McClean. Scrap that. The whole Irish team deserve credit for that.
Let’s just rewind to the second of September. Wales defeated Austria 1-0. Ireland drew with Georgia. Two days later we lost to Serbia in the Aviva Stadium and you’d have been hard pressed to find someone who wasn’t saying good riddance to our hopes of qualification.
It wasn’t being pessimistic. It was just being real.
It was no longer in our hands, we needed some other results to go our way.
They did, with a Scotland bottle job proving decisive.
We defeated Moldova, and on Monday night we defeated Wales in their own back yard.
The first-half was slow, it was drab, it was boring, but Ireland were fighting hard and some crunching early James McClean challenges let Wales know they’d have to earn it.
Fast forward to the 56th minute. Jeff Hendrick hounded the Welsh, he won a ball and somehow kept it in along the sideline. He delivered an inviting cross from the end-line, a cross that was destined for Harry Arter, but one that if he controlled it, you just knew he was going to get bottled up.
He dummied it expertly, letting it run for James McClean.
It came to his right foot. The rest is history.
James McClean, you absolute dancer. How about that step over from Harry Arter?!? #WALIRL #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/75hDzigE9L
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) October 9, 2017
Ireland held on to win 1-0 and will now progress to the play-offs.
What a night in Cardiff.
