Wes Hoolahan trains everyday with Robbie Brady, which is why his headed goal came as a bit of a surprise.
The Norwich team-mates combined for the 85th-minute goal that beat Italy, sent the Republic of Ireland into the second round and sent the nation into raptures.
Hoolahan made amends for his miss a minute earlier by whipping in an incredibly inviting cross for Brady. Behind Leonardo Bonucci, in front of Salvatore Sirigu, it was a ball made for an attacker to attack.
Having started the move in the Irish half, Brady made the perfect run into the Italian area – accelerating at the moment he saw Hoolahan ready himself to whip in a left-footed in-swinger from the right.
It was perfect. The only kink being the man on the end of the perfect cross. The Norwich City website lists the left sided winger-cum-full-back-cum-central midfielder as 5 foot 9 inches and less than 11 stone.
Not the ideal candidate to compete for a do-or-die cross against a grizzled Italian padlock defence. Clearly those bare numbers don’t take into account Brady’s desire to get on the end of that cross, his sheer guts and will power.
Brady had eyes only for the ball, Sirigu’s eyes were shut by the time the Brady had nicked in to power the ball goalwards.
Niall Quinn eat your heart out. Except Hoolahan last night admitted that Brady is not renowned for his heading, what with usually being the man delivering the crosses, not converting them.
SportsJOE asked Hoolahan if Brady was renowned for his use of the old noggin.
“Not really, you should see him in training! But he got his head in when it mattered and that is the main thing,” said the 34-year-old, who lavished praise on his team-mate, 10 years his junior.
“He was excellent tonight, from start to finish. To get in that box, to show that determination, to get his head on it, I’m delighted for him too because he is a great lad.”
He may be a “street footballer”, “magician” and “genius” but Hoolahan is also a solid pro and – just like his press conference ahead of the Italy game – the former Shelbourne man wanted to get a message across after Ireland qualified for the last 16 as the third placed team in Group E on four points.
We’re paraphrasing but the message was, basically, “we don’t fear France, we don’t fear anyone, we just beat Italy for Christ’s sake”.
A question about Thierry Henry, 2009 and all that jazz elicited a no-nonsense response from Hoolahan.
I want this played at my funeral #IRLITA pic.twitter.com/9DdpzPHz7L
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 22, 2016
“There is the history of the Thierry Henry handball and the goal but we will probably forget about that. We will concentrate on Sunday’s game and we have nobody to fear,” he said, before a wonderfully confident statement that speaks volumes about the man.
“It’s going to be a good game, I’m looking forward to it. France are a very good team with a lot of quality players. It is going to be a good night.”
In the terrifying bottom half of the draw, featuring no fewer than FIVE World champions, who do we have to fear, Wes?
“It was always going to be tough, whoever we played. But we have nobody to fear, you seen the way we played tonight, the way we played against Sweden. Obviously the game against Belgium it didn’t go to plan, but we have no one to fear.”
Martin O’Neill has a dilemma on his hands now ahead of Sunday’s game in Lyon. Do you bring Hoolahan, the goalscorer against Sweden, back into the starting XI, or stick with the team that started like a train against the Azzurri?
Having missed a one-on-one with Sirigu, Hoolahan reminded everyone of his quality with that assist – the kind of impact he was desperate to make after a chance that could have haunted him.
“Going from being one on one with the keeper, I should have scored, but I kept going in the game and thought another chance would come my way, or create another chance or create a goal and lucky enough I did,” said Hooalhan, who was full of praise for how the team played. Even if he did not enjoy watching from the bench.
“It is harder to watch as an Ireland supporter as well. ‘Ah, penalty!’ ‘We should have scored’ and ‘We should have been 1-0 up’ and stuff like that. You just have to wait, hopefully get on and create a chance in the game and it worked out in the end,” said Hoolahan of watching on for 77 minutes.
“From the first minute we were straight after them. We should have had a peno in the first half, definitely. But the manager said at half-time, ‘just keep going, a chance will come’. And it did.
“We showed great character tonight, getting on the ball, selfless running from the lads. It was a great goal by Robbie in the end.”
A great headed goal, at that. It was one of those nights. One of those magical evenings when little men stand on the shoulders of giants and reach higher than anyone else.
