We’ve had some magical nights but this was up with any of them

THE win over Italy goes down as one of the great nights of Irish football. It could even be the greatest.

I know the win in Stuttgart over England was our first game in a major tournament and it was against England.

Beating Romania on penalties at Italia 90 was another wonderful occasion, made more memorable because of Packie’s save, David O’Leary’s winning penalty, and the prize: a place in the World Cup quarter-finals.

And the win over Italy in Giants Stadium was fantastic but it was the opening game of USA 94.

But we had to beat Italy this week to progress to the knock-out stages. And I know it was not the strongest Italian team but it was still a good side, full of Serie A players and a few from runaway Italian champions Juventus.

Sometimes, and I experienced this is as a player, you are playing against the club and the name before you start.

But once you get into the game and start to feel confident and that your opponent is really no better than you, you grow into the game. I saw a lot of that on Wednesday night.

It was dream come true to play for Ireland. We all dream as kids of wearing the green shirt, and having that Robbie Brady (right) moment.

After retirement, I have been lucky enough to continue working on Ireland games and I love what I’m doing. I’ll take covering Ireland games over anything else and Robbie’s goal was the best moment yet.