Ireland’s Euro 2016 will not be looked back in years to come with bitter recriminations. Still, we should’ve got three bloody penos!
When the referee pointed to the spot, after 80 seconds of play in Ireland’s second round match with France, it took a while for the nation to process it.
Have we just been given a penalty?
The spot-kick was the first awarded to Ireland at a major tournament since Ian Harte missed one against Spain in 2002. Two tournaments and six games later and Robbie Brady stepped up, dispatching the ball past Hugo Lloris to give Ireland a 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, France struck back twice through Antoine Griezmann and Ireland were out. James McClean is back home, in Derry, after his Euro 2016 exploits and was asked to reflect on the penalty he should have won us against Italy.
In an interview with Newstalk’s Off The Ball, McClean reflected on the refusal of that stonewaller and another we should have got when Shane Long was kung-fued in the Belgian penalty box. He said:
“We got it the third time of asking, we should have got it against Belgium as well. I’m glad that decision didn’t come down to deciding the game. We didn’t want to have one of those stories where we were going home and feeling hard done by. I’m glad that decision [not to award the penalties] didn’t come down to the deciding the games.
“It was a clear penalty and we didn’t get it… We went on and got on with it, and Robbie ended up scoring. It was a penalty that’s forgotten about, it didn’t matter.”
McClean’s attitude sums up that of his team and he feels they can continue with their ‘never-say-die spirit’ into the World Cup qualifiers.
