Ireland arrive home with new confidence for World Cup

Martin O'Neill believes the Republic of Ireland can head into the next World Cup qualifying campaign with confidence after reaching the second round of a European Championships where a couple of his younger players established themselves as the team's new key figures.

As stalwarts like Shay Given, Robbie Keane and possibly John O'Shea edge towards the exit door, Jeff Hendrick and Robbie Brady stepped in to deliver on the faith that the northerner has placed in them, playing key roles in Ireland's critically important win over Italy but also performing strongly for long spells through the games against Sweden and France.

Ireland were ultimately well beaten by the hosts in their final game as their legs went and their heads quickly followed in the second half. But they started well and led before the task of delivering a repeat of the high-tempo performance that had brought them victory over Antonio Conte’s men took its toll and the attacking quality of the French simply overwhelmed them.

For spells at this tournament, though, they have played with a level of ambition and fluency that had long been absent from the side, with not just Brady and Hendrick but also James McCarthy and even James McClean making major contributions to team performances that caused a couple of good teams significant difficulties.

‘Come of age’

“I think those players have come of age and that’s given us great hope,” said the manager as he and his squad prepared for the journey home to Dublin.

“We’re back at it in a couple of months’ time and it’s back to a long, gruelling campaign to try and qualify. But do I think we should go into the World Cup with decent confidence? Yes. Do I think that some of the players have performed incredibly well, even beyond what they maybe felt themselves? Yes, absolutely.”

Ireland's group includes Wales, who have thus far done well here, and Austria, who did not, along with a Serbia side that seems bound to be much better than it was through a terrible attempt to get to this championship, so O'Neill and his men, given the smaller of number of sides to progress (group winners go through with eight of the nine second-placed sides going to play-offs for four additional places), ultimately face a very tough task again.

But the former Aston Villa and Sunderland boss, though still pondering what might have been had they somehow held on to beat France then had a week to recover before their quarter-final, is adamant that they have done well enough over the past 10 days to feel they can get to Russia.

"We were beaten by a very fine Belgian side," he says. "We competed with and beat what you would still consider a strong Italian side, players who are playing major football every single week. France introduced a player who plays for Bayern Munich. There's a player called Martial, who is a quality player, a really great player, only cost about €50 million, or whatever it was, wasn't in their team, didn't start in their side . . . that's what you're up against. So I think we have come out of it really well."

Dust themselves off

Certainly, the Irish have done better than the Austrians who came here fancied by many to make the latter stages, but O’Neill says that they will dust themselves off and be ready to go again by the time September comes around.

“I think by the time that the competition comes around it will be a different issue,” he says. “Let’s say if that happened to us, that’s the way that we would have to have felt. It’s a new competition.”

O'Neill intends, he confirmed, to be in charge of the team through the next two years with, he hopes, Roy Keane staying on as his assistant. Neither have signed deals to follow on from the ones that essentially expired with the team's elimination from these Euros but he is, he says, willing to sign his and intends to sort out the Corkman's future soon.

As for the squad’s most senior players – Shay Given, Robbie Keane and John O’Shea – he said that he would speak with them if they wanted to know where they stand, but that they essentially need to do what is best for them.

“I think that with the players, 75 per cent of it will be in their own minds as to what they want to do. If they say, ‘listen here, I need you to either push it over the line’ or ‘where do you see me fitting in?’ then I would let them know as honestly as I possibly can where they stand.”

But he readily acknowledges that their age is an issue. “If Robbie Keane had been 27,” he says, or even 29 actually, he would have been in our team.”