Martin O’Neill hails fans’ ‘performance’ in victory over Germany

Martin O’Neill yesterday acclaimed the role Ireland fans played in Thursday night’s defeat of Germany, when the Aviva Stadium rediscovered the old Lansdowne Roar.

“I thought their (the crowd) performance was really amazing. The players were remarking on it late last night at the hotel and this morning; in terms of an atmosphere we hadn’t witnessed that at the Aviva, certainly not in my time.

“Not only that, I thought they got into the real spirit of it, knowing when there were big important moments, even cheering a clearance at different stages, knowing that was relieving pressure.

“Maybe it was because it was the Germans but everyone seemed up for it.”

O’Neill did admit a certain unease at how the pattern of the Group D qualifier quickly settled into a procession towards Shay Given’s goal.

“I thought first half, Germany have come with loads of confidence. They’re world champions and they displayed that early on in the game. They put us on the back foot quite early and somehow we survived. A little bit of luck, a great block by John O’Shea in particular.”

“But we started to grow into the game. And I thought in the second half we were outstanding. A really great effort. Defensively very strong and we started to cause them a few problems.

O’Neill described Shane Long’s winner as “a wonder goal” and felt his side coped well when thrust into an unexpected winning position.

“It gave us something to cling onto. You use these words ‘cling on’, but I thought we were strong and it was just a wonderful performance. And we’ve beaten the world champions.

Not that O’Neill will defy football convention and write off the Germans.

“I still think they are one of the favourites to go on and win the competition.”

There was widespread gloom about Ireland’s qualification prospects after the home draw with Scotland in June, but O’Neill maintains he never felt his side’s chance was gone.

“It was just over half-way. There were going to be twists and turns. I’ve seen it so often before.”

“Even then, we had fate in our own hands. As it turns out, we’ve gone three on the trot and we can go to Poland in some confidence.

“Poland will be difficult. We know what we have to do... a high-scoring draw (will do). But we have to try and win the match. Poland have been very, very strong in this campaign and they’ll remain so. And they’ve got one of the best players in the world playing for them in Lewandowski.

“But we’ve secured a play-off place and I think we all would have taken that yesterday [Thursday] morning.”

He played down any difficulty in regrouping his troops for a second huge effort.

“The tiredness soon evaporates when you’ve got a win like that. But now let’s go and try and win the game. It’ll be a good test for us, really, really tough. It’ll be a hard task but we’re going there in some confidence.”

Newcastle United goalkeeper Rob Elliot has been called up for the trip to Warsaw as a replacement for Shay Given, who suffered a knee injury against Germany and will report back to his club for further assessment.

There are no other injury concerns with Seamus Coleman and Marc Wilson both available for selection.