CARDIFF MEANS NOTHING IF WE DON’T QUALIFY
‘I DON’T SEE A SIDE WHO WILL COME AND TEAR US APART’
THE victory in Cardiff was one of the great nights for Irish football and James McClean’s winner was one of the goals that will go down in history. But this is just the beginning for Martin O’Neill and his players. While it is a fantastic achievement to go to Wales and win in order to qualify for the play-offs, it will all mean nothing if Ireland fail to get to Russia.
Every player played his part to ensure we achieved second place and they will all have come away with great memories. That sort of night stays with players, their families and the supporters for the rest of their lives.
It was always going to be a big night for either team. The singing of the Welsh national anthem was one of the most incredible things I have ever heard in my life, but I felt the majority of home fans I encountered were dismissive of the Ireland team.
Wales manager Chris Coleman wanted an intimidating atmosphere and that’s what he got.
As I walked up to the game, the feeling I got from the Wales supporters was that we were wasting our time even turning up.
But when I got on the train to Cardiff in Stockport, with so many other Ireland fans who had got flights to Manchester, you just got the feeling it was going to be a special night.
And when I arrived in Cardiff, there was such a buzz.
I can never put my finger on it, but I had the same feeling when we played Germany in the last campaign.
Sometimes you just have a feeling in pre-match that you are in for a big night and it was there in Cardiff. It just felt like it was going to be our night.
And everything fell perfectly when James McClean scored that goal; brilliant play from Jeff Hendrick, the dummy from Harry Arter, and a brilliant finish from McClean.
It’s a strike that is up there with the best, all-important goals in Ireland games over the last 30 years – the two from Ray Houghton, Jason McAteer and Alan McLoughlin.
It can be considered among one of the great goals in the history of Irish football; and James McClean deserves it.
He has become a real catalyst and figurehead in the team and you know you can rely on him, even if he is not going to have a good night. You know what he is going to give you and you can see his pride in wearing the Ireland shirt. He epitomises what it means to play for Ireland.
He has been my favourite Irish player over the last couple of years and having watched him play, progress and mature, it was fitting he had that key moment.
It always felt comfortable against Wales. I didn’t feel at any time during the contest that they were going to score.
They had plenty of the ball in the final third but we never looked like we were going to concede and they were no threat. You have to give credit to manager Martin O’Neill and the team because I never felt they were going to punish us.
It was purely down to the organisation of the team and how disciplined they were. With McClean and Robbie Brady on the two flanks, David Meyler sitting in the middle and Jeff Hendrick and Harry Arter on either side of him, there was real talent in that midfield, of course, but lots of energy.
They were very disciplined and looked out for each other. That was the key. I know Shane Duffy was man of the match and he performed like Richard Dunne in the way he got into positions to make blocks and head everything.
But we won the game because of the way we ran the midfield. We stopped Wales’ intricate play which we saw in the first 20 minutes when Aaron Ramsey was in the number 10 role and we were finding it difficult to get hold of him.
Joe Allen going off may have changed the game but once Cyrus Christie and Stephen Ward squeezed further in, we were able to cope better with the numbers in midfield. Sometimes we had four defenders marking Hal RobsonKanu and they were having too much possession.
Once Duffy and Ciaran Clark had assumed the responsibility to stop Robson-Kanu, we started to get into the game in the last 15 minutes of the first half and get more of the ball. The second half was more of the same and the goal always felt likely.
When it went in, it was just a great moment. You feel honoured to be in attendance and working at one of those big nights for Ireland.
There are pros and cons among all the possible play-offs opponents. I don’t agree with it being seeded, but at least there has been clarity from the start of qualification and it doesn’t feel like the rules are being made up at the last minute, as they were before we had to play France all those years ago.
It won’t be easy. All four teams are probably better than Wales, even if they are higher in the FIFA rankings than all but Switzerland.
The Swiss are a powerful, strong team and, apart from Xherdan Shaqiri, they all look well over six feet tall.
They are very physical players and you know we would have had a different game against the intri- cacy and skill of Portugal who won their group.
Denmark are arguably the weakest of the four but they still have very good players like Christian Eriksen and they will be no pushovers in Copenhagen where they have such a good record.
Croatia and Italy are probably the ones to avoid. Croatia have a new boss and players like Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric, who is a fantastic footballer and can open you up effortlessly. But they have a weakness in defence.
As you’d expect, Italy are a very strong and structured side with quality in defence and an outstanding keeper but I don’t see a side who will come and tear us apart.
We cannot be disrespectful to any of the sides. There are qualities throughout and no one should be underestimated.
But none of those sides will relish the prospect of playing Ireland.