There’s a wave of confidence permeating the Versailles air.
Straight after the game in Lille on Wednesday night, the players were drunk on the sort of high that making history brings. They grew addicted to it immediately.
Jeff Hendrick said that, in the changing rooms, the squad agreed that they didn’t want that game to be the end of it. James McCarthy came out and bellied that they want to go one better, that they ‘want to achieve something big here.’ Robbie Keane, Wes Hoolahan, Seamus Coleman all turned their attentions to the second round of the European Championships.
Even after the Belgium game, there seemed from the outside to be a sort of quiet assurance about the Republic of Ireland camp. Martin O’Neill gave nothing away to the media, he came across sombre, if anything, but away from the watchful eyes of camera lenses and the listening ears of recording devices, O’Neill and Keane looked poised for battle.
And it showed on Wednesday night with one of the finest Irish performances of all time.
Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane are preparing an ambush, reckons @ConanDoherty https://t.co/27oexPDFiE
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 22, 2016
This country has nothing to lose.
This team has exceeded expectations beyond the wildest of predictions.
From last June, when this whole generation was almost dismissed as a write-off, it has been nothing but a series of successes in proving people wrong and inspiring a nation in the process.
They were dead and buried in their qualifying group to get here. They got here.
They were sucker-punched with the toughest play-off draw. They brushed it aside.
They were on their way home on Saturday. They’re still here.
There’s a near-giddiness about the camp. Daryl Murphy and Shane Long faced the press on Friday morning at the team’s training base at the Stade Municipal Montbauron and the two were trying their best to contain their laughter as the translator relayed their answers. It wasn’t even funny. But it was.
Roy Keane smirked as he delivered his penultimate response – it would’ve been his last if he didn’t oblige with one final one from the French contingent. With his eyebrows raised cheekily, lips pressed firmly together as held back a full smile – as if to let us know his thoughts without letting us know – he thought about Sunday’s encounter.
He said that the Irish have the hardest draw – they probably do. Again. He spoke about the talent of the French, having less days to prepare and the unfairness of how few Ireland supporters will be in attendance at Lyon. Through it all, all the adversity and the tough blow for his countrymen, it was nearly as if Roy Keane enjoyed the thought of that challenge. It was nearly as if he loved it.
“They’re enjoying the pressure of being the home nation, it doesn’t look like it’s getting to them,” he said. “Hopefully it might get to them a little bit on Sunday…”
He’s not worried about this task, he’s thriving off it. Sure, it doesn’t really matter what he thinks and he knows that better than anyone. But that’s probably why he’s feeling so relaxed because it’s becoming clearer as Sunday approaches that Ireland’s representatives on the field of battle have bought into that mindset as well.
Keane said after the Belgium game that you don’t go into any match thinking the other team is better than you. Finally, it’s starting to rub off on everyone and the management are loosening their grip.
“We hope the players will get up for it,” the Cork native said. “I’m sure they will, it’s such a big occasion. We’re going to have to trust the players to go out there and perform; trust the players to get on with the job. If they perform like they did the other night, you give yourself a chance. Simple as that.
“There’s no guarantee of you ever winning a game of football – even if you play well – but you’ve got to give yourself a chance. We didn’t against Belgium, we had no foothold in the game but we did the other night – we were in there fighting – and we want to do that against the French. Give ourselves a chance.
“Whatever we have in our group, we do need energy, we need to close people down and get the ball back and then, when we do get it back, we need to look after it. We did that the other night. Our decision-making I thought was very good, when to keep it, when to go long. We were a lot smarter the other night and we need a better performance against the French.”
That confidence is affecting the Irish approach.
Having to beat Italy was probably the best thing that could’ve happened. The team was set up to win, the players had one task of scoring more than the opposition, and they played without inhibition. Without fear.
They played with balls as their assistant manager called for in the build-up to Wednesday and it’s something that Keane would like to see again in their approach – even if it’s not always possible.
“We got results against Germany before by sitting back in. Maybe that wasn’t always by choice – sometimes depending on the possession you have, you have to sit in. I think we have the players. I think it would be a dangerous game – it depends on the starting 11 – to try and sit in and soak up pressure and hit teams on the counter attack,” he warned.
“Maybe the players that we start with are more suited to ‘get up and at ’em’ – without being silly. The French players, being the home team, might want that as well because they think they can pick us off pretty easily. Maybe it does suit us to be on the front foot and having a go and, if people do pick us off high up the pitch, then maybe that’s not the end of the world – it’s obviously more so when we’re 25, 30 yards from our own goal.
“I think what we saw the other night, certainly when we won it higher up the pitch – when we put ’em under pressure, as they say – it did seem to suit the group of players that we had. I think it helped the momentum of the game and the flow of the game and it gave our supporters something to really shout about.
“We certainly want a foothold in the game.”
So the underdog story can continue…
“You talk about underdogs. Who do you mean by underdogs? Who are the underdogs?” Keane queried passionately.
“To me, there’s been no real surprises. The teams that have done well, had a chance of getting out of their groups. If you’re talking about the Icelands and ourselves, I don’t think it’s a shock. Maybe later in the competition if we’re still in it, you can go ‘maybe, yeah’. But in terms of getting out of their groups and where the teams are now, I don’t think there’s been any real surprises. I think it’s been expected.
“These teams have turned up, like ourselves, the north and Wales, they’ve got good players. If you do your homework on Iceland, it’s no surprise that they got out of the group – they have a very, very good team. A strong team.
“I don’t see the teams that got through as underdogs, far from it.”
And he’s not going to Lyon talking about underdogs either. He’s going down to what is expected to be over 50,000 French fans and he’s literally licking his lips at the prospect of dumping them out of their own competition.
The players are too. They want to beat France, not see what happens. They want to put ’em under pressure. Because they’re not feeling any themselves.
They’re feeling free. They’re feeling fearless.
