Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill: ‘I would have taken playoff’

The World Cup winners, who have lifted the Henri Delauney trophy three times as European champions, left it late but sealed their spot with a 2-1 win over already-eliminated Georgia which gave them top spot in Group D.

Randolph had to race from his line to meet an underhit Jeff Hendrick back-pass and his scuffed clearance was recycled to Lewandowski 40 yards out, but as the keeper scampered back towards his goal, the green shirts got back to shut the door.

When will the play-offs take place? .

From the corner Poland struck the front with a thumping drive by Krychowiak which flew past Darren Randolph on 13 minutes. While the finish was excellent, the Irish marking was anything but. Currently, Group D stands with Germany, barely in the lead with 19 points, Poland and Republic of Ireland are tied with 18 points. At the other end, Lewandowski felt that he should have had a penalty of his own following a tangle with John O’Shea. Although Michal Pazdan clearly kicked Shane Long in the head as he tried to compete for a loose ball – and was perhaps lucky not to be sent off – the incident happened outside the box.

Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir nevertheless pointed to the spot and Walters calmly beat keeper Lukasz Fabianski to claim his eighth goal in an Ireland shirt. “But I think if a few players feel their game has improved, not only because of playing at global but also because I’ve attempted to show them how to play the game or their position, I think that’s improvement”.

He headed home just before halftime for his 15th goal in the last six games for his club Bayern Munich and country.

“This is not our standard, there’s still a lot of work ahead of us”, he added. Portugal were confirmed as group winners, finishing on 21 points after securing seven wins from eight.

“We’re happy on the whole to have secured qualification but displeased with our last two matches”, said Loew, who had seen his team lose 1-0 to Ireland on Thursday. The match was still very much on a knife edge.

A penalty just three minutes later saw Ireland even out the score. The Southampton striker had received rough treatment throughout the game and his knock was the effect of another bruising collision.

“I have to say that my players did an extremely great job today and this is their success. The reality is we were only one more goal against Poland away from qualifying, that is all we needed”.

Richard Keogh only played against Germany and Poland because of Ireland’s lengthy injury list, but the experience has turned the Derby County centre-half into a believer in a bright future for Irish football.