I hadn’t yet put the pint i had just bought to my lips when Robbie Brady sent the whole of Ireland into a frenzy. 1-0 up against the hosts, 2 minutes in; and rather than being outnumbered by the French by what seemed like 500 fans to 1, it felt like the game was being played in Croke Park. The atmosphere was amazing. “Just 88 more minutes, and we are in the quarter finals!”
When the draw was made way back in 2015, nobody gave Ireland much of a chance of progressing beyond the group stages. Even though we had this new format, where four best third place finishers would advance, it still seemed a long shot – to every person not from Ireland. Italy, Belgium and Sweden awaited us in France as we were drawn in the group of death. To us Irish, not the mighty Italians; the 2nd best ranked team in the world – Belgium; nor the might of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sweden was enough to keep us from progressing to the last 16. The media, and just about everybody else had written us off before the tournament had even started. To them we were just going to make up the numbers and have a “bitta craic”.
UFC star Conor McGregor once said – “We’re not here to take part. We’re here to take over”. This was never more clear from the way the Irish fans took to France for Euro 2016. They flew over in their thousands and while there was crowd trouble between certain minority of fans, the Irish were acknowledged for their fun and good behavior. We were there to drag our boys in green through the group when nobody else thought it possible. And that we did. Following a disappointing 1-1 draw in the opening game against Sweden (disappointing due to being far the better team on the night), we then lost 3-0 to Belgium after a second half collapse. This left a sour taste in Irish mouths as we now needed to beat the already qualified Italians to advance to the next round. Enter Robbie Brady.
Time was running out for Ireland as they went desperately in search of that elusive goal to put them through to the last 16. Both teams had spurned chances, with Ireland pushing the pace going into the final 5 minutes. Italy content with their point, were sitting very deep as Ireland pressed forward – wave after wave of attack. It seemed like it wasn’t going to be our night when Wes Hoolahan missed an absolute sitter of a chance on 87 minutes. The players and fans couldn’t believe it. However, they didn’t give up. On 88 minutes, a mere 60 seconds after Hoolahan had wasted what everybody thought to be Ireland’s last chance, put a cross onto the head of Robbie Brady who stuck the ball in the back of the Italian net to send Ireland through to the last 16 of the tournament, where they were set to battle the tournament favorites, and hosts – France.
We got in to half time in Lyon a goal to nil up. Everybody was really starting to buy into the idea that it would be Ireland, not France who would face the potential winners of England and Iceland in the last 8. All that was left to do was hold out for 45 minutes and we were there. That was a lot harder than anyone had imagined, however. In the space of 4 second half minutes, Antoine Griezman had shattered Irish hopes and dreams. We crashed out of the Euros.
Even being sent home after being so close to reaching the last eight couldn’t dampen Irish spirits. The fans were still amazing, and proud of what the team had achieved. We got out of a group that nobody gave us a chance in, and ran the favorites close in the last 16. If we had of been offered that last December, we would have took it with both hands. After a long 3 weeks of participating – people could now return to normality. No more drinking all day on Tuesdays, using the excuse “ah sure Ireland are playing!”, and no more hoarse throats from screaming at the referees through the television. Our lads in green made us as proud as they could have and we couldn’t have asked for more heart throughout. They are a bunch that we should all be proud of.
Roll on Russia….
devongermaine 