The morning after the night before and we can all start to plan our trips to France.
But before you get on to your travel agent, why not revel in the joy of the Republic of Ireland’s 2-0 win over Bosnia at the Aviva last night, which secured a 3-1 Euro 2016 play-off win.
We’ve collated a collection of the front and back pages, plus a few excerpts from the journalists who witnessed an historic night for Irish football.
Miguel Delaney in the Irish Examiner praised the organisation of Martin O’Neill’s men:
“If a supreme competitiveness and sense of fight beyond other international sides — like Bosnia-Herzegovina — has so often kept Ireland in this campaign when they sometimes looked like they might struggle, they here added a cohesion, a collective intensity and also a finesse that basically beat the Bosnians before the game even got going.”
Ken Early in the Irish Times gives credit to a new generation of Irish players:
“Match-winner Walters was drowned out by the roars of the crowd as he tried to answer the first question in his pitchside interview. New heroes have grown up for a new generation, and Ireland go back to the European Championships with renewed hope.”
Michael Scully in the Irish Daily Mirror made note of Bosnia’s inability to keep their cool:
“The goal clearly rattled the visitors and Sead Kolasinac earned himself a stern talking to from Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers after reacting angrily when Wes Hoolahan went down under his challenge.”
In the Irish Daily Mail, Philip Quinn observed Roy Keane’s reluctance to take centre stage:
“Post-game, O’Neill tried to drag Keane to the centre circle, so they could be acclaimed in harness by the fans. A good-natured Keane wriggled out of his bear hug to allow O’Neill his moment.”
The Irish Daily Starand the Irish Daily Mail went with the “Here Oui Go” headline, while the Irish Sun stump for “Jon Voyage”.
The Guardian’s Daniel Taylor put some context on the scale of this team’s achievement:
“This is a team featuring three players from Championship clubs, a goalkeeper from West Ham’s reserves and a back-up from Millwall, currently ninth in League One. The only constant theme has been their spirit of togetherness and Jon Walters, the epitome of that team ethic, talked later about it being the outstanding night in his professional life.”
James Ducker in the Times provided the obligatory Thierry Henry reference:
“They had nursed a grave sense of injustice six years ago when Thierry Henry’s handball in a play-off against France ended their hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals, a storm that culminated with Fifa reputedly paying the Football Association of Ireland €5 million (then about £4.2 million) to avert the threat of legal action.”
