Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GRATE DANES Classy Eriksen shreds Irish dream of Russia finals with a hat-trick
MARTIN O’NEILL bemoaned a ‘comedy of mistakes’ as Ireland kissed the World Cup goodbye having been put to the slaughter.
Christian Eriksen ran riot with a sensational hat-trick as Shane Duffy’s early goal evaporated amid a catalogue of errors. Having verbally agreed a new deal for the Euro 2020 campaign, O’neill looks set to stay in charge and will soon meet with FAI chief John Delaney. But the gutted boss still muddied the waters last night by claiming: “I’ll have a real think about it.” O’neill added: “We’ve been beaten in a play-off that we fought tooth and nail to get to. I’m very disappointed that we couldn’t do it.
“But the goals were so sloppy. Seeing them back they were so, so bad. We should have cleared the ball for their first one and the next goal is just a comedy of mistakes.”