The (Sweaty) Miracle of Lille!

So miracles do happen!

High up in the stand behind the goal that Sirigu was defending and deep in the second half, we and the other thirty odd thousand sweat drenched Irish were still singing but doubt was creeping in. Personally I’ll admit that I was already seeing the ‘plucky Irish bow out’ type headlines after a 0-0 victory. And then Hoolahan was gifted his one on one chance and passed it up. Looking around me at the faces in the stand we really did start to think our game was up, and that was the chance. We kept up the singing all the same. While we in the stands of the Stade Pierre Mauroy cauldron started to doubt, the players on the pitch kept passing and moving with purpose. They knew the Italians were there for the taking. In the end it was super sub Wes who created it and Robbie Brady took the iniative and moved into where Shane Long would normally have made his run and timed it perfectly. The moments after the ball hit the net will remain etched in Irish sporting history. Up in the stand the eruption of joy and relief was just mental. Looking back on it now I felt it was almost a slow motion moment. I was running out of voice and the intense heat under the closed roof had sapped my energy. I remember bouncing up and down arm in arm with Mark on one side and Eoin Conway on the other (our ticket provider!) and trying to shout out but didn’t have the lungs to shout and scream out. So I just grinned like a big eejit and took it all in!

The celebrations on the pitch seemed to go on a few minutes and they went on even longer in the stands. After hugging those we were with, we turned and hugged the strangers behind and in front of us. And then regrouped to see out the last few minutes out with the Boys in Green. It was lovely to see that they managed to keep the ball pinned in the Italian half for most of those five plus minutes. And then a lovely release of joy at the final whistle, knowing that we were through and didn’t need to rely on any other results. It’s a shame in a way that we didn’t have the TV view to see the emotional and tearful celebrations of the players and management on the pitch. We were so high up in the stand that the view of the stadium TV screen was blocked! Not to worry. The best thing about the win in my view was that it was so deserved, and especially after the Ireland management made such a massive call in dropping the two centre halves as well as the main defensive midfield lynchpin of the Trap and O’Neill eras. Personally I was by the way the Irish lads just kept going at Italy with a mixture of aggression and some lovely and incisive football. Their conviction in what they were doing was so impressive even as those second half minutes ticked down and good chances went by the wayside. Surely this will now give them massive confidence. It was only the following day that I realised this is our biggest win since the same result at USA ’94. What a privilege to be there.

Mark and myself made our way back into Lille city centre expecting raucous celebrations, but what we found was a more relaxed Irish celebration. One reason was that so many bars were closed, so fans were scattered over the city centre. A few bars were serving so queues were big there and hundreds made their way to a main square and sat around a bubbling fountain. It didn’t quite turn green but there was a slight tinge to it! Around 3am we were done. The heat and humidity of Lille was tough work and also unexpected. Being so far north I expected it to be slightly cooler but the two days we had in Lille were the hottest of the trip so far. We brokered a lift home with a local ‘taxi’ man to our hotel which was 50km away in another town, and I can safely say the high speed trip in his early 90s clapped out Merc is one of the hairiest car journies I’ll ever do in my lifetime!

Thursday was supposed to be a down day in Lille, we ended up nursing a few beers along with hundreds of other Irish still in the town and it turned into a mini session. We were done by around 11pm though and got a left back with a Belgian friend of Mark’s who had popped down from Gent to catch up. Thankfully she was a safer driver than the night before!

The TGV back to Paris didn’t live up to its name yesterday, what should be an hours journey Lille to Paris took almost two hours and for half of that journey we were crawling along. I had been so impressed with the Paris metro and enjoying all our journeys through the myriad metro lines and coloured routes during this trip. It proved too good to be true as my mobile was pick pocketed on the metro yesterday on route back to the campsite. After initial anger and feeling foolish, I did the necessary blocking of phone etc and realise that it’s not that big a deal and I can’t let it affect the holiday. Need to keep an eye on the bigger picture. I’ll survive til next week without a phone too! Thoughts now turn to the knock out stages starting today. We have Wales v Northern Ireland to look forward to in Parc des Princes. Gareth has joined us from Belfast for the weekend yesterday so hopefully we can secure him a ticket too. Two other matches to enjoy today too, so Paris Fanzone will be sampled for the first time. Then tomorrow morning we are back to a rental car and back on the road to Lyon for the big  one…back to the start of our road trip last week so we are going full circle! Ireland is in bonus territory now and France will expect to win. If Martin O’Neill is bold again in his team selection and if the team keep the composure on the ball and calmness of the Italian performance then I think this will be a close one. Maybe even extra time. And then who knows, from Miracle of Lille to the Miracle of Lyon perhaps?!

Kevin McCarthy