O'Brien insists Ireland must go again after performance 'to be proud of'

Republic of Ireland defender Jake O'Brien. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Jake O’Brien believes the Republic of Ireland produced a performance “to be proud of” in their heart-breaking 1-0 loss to Portugal in Lisbon on Saturday night.

Rúben Neves' injury-time strike was enough to see the Portuguese make it three wins out of three, confining Ireland to their second consecutive loss in the process which leaves them rooted to the bottom of Group F with only one point.

Speaking shortly after full time, O’Brien praised his fellow Cork man Caoimhin Kelleher’s penalty save which denied Cristiano Ronaldo his 142nd international goal before insisting Ireland must take the positives from this game into Tuesday night’s crucial clash against Armenia at the Aviva stadium.

“Obviously, a huge disappointment but a performance to be proud of in large part,” said O’Brien.

“I'm very disappointed. I thought the lads were excellent for the whole game and we defended well. It was just a small moment at the end that they capitalised on.

“I thought it was a good performance. Obviously, it's disappointing that we've lost but I thought the fans were excellent. They definitely pushed us on and hopefully we see them all again on Tuesday for another big game.

“It was a good game but I think it's about pushing on from here and just coming to teams like Portugal and having good performance.

“We have to do it every game. We need to put that kind of performance into Tuesday and not see it as one we can walk all over.”