I forgot Robbie Brady was Norwich! Get in !!!!!!

Get out!!

Ref bottled it , stone cold penalty , and certainly should have seen Murphy being strangled !

great result ireland domestic football is on hold til august ...so brady and the irish team and daryl especially fantastic result ...the tournament came alive with tonights games ...

Thought he did well tonight...hope he keeps his place for the game against France.

Come on Daryl... Get your scoring boots on for Sunday.

Daryl definitely didn't disappear in that team and was winning a lot of areal battles as well as playing McLean through for the pen in the first half. Well done Murphy good performance hopefully he gets a shift on Sunday too!

The 3rd teams qualifying has ruined the tournament in my opinion. Teams like Slovakia played for a 0-0 which they wouldn't have been able to if just the usual 2 teams go through. Congrats to Ireland, I'm very happy they won, but being able to celebrate coming 3rd out of a group of 4 just doesn't seem right to me.

best game he's played in a while very classy...coyb.... Plus I was happy a budgie scored who knew...!

Murphy was terrific last night. He shouldn't have been subbed either. It showed why he should have played against Belgium.
Here's a snippet from today's Irish Times...

Daryl Murphy a vital ally for Shane Long
Shane Long is Ireland's premier striker and came into the tournament off the back of a fine season for Southampton, but it made gruesome viewing watching him getting bullied and manhandled by Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen in Bordeaux. On Wednesday Martin O'Neill opted to partner Long with Daryl Murphy and Ireland reaped the benefits. Murphy has obvious limitations, indeed, he has now gone more than 20 games without scoring a first goal for Ireland. Yet his presence alone helped transform Ireland in Lille. Rather than ceding possession every time the ball was knocked long Murphy was able to hold it up well, and he was a constant thorn for the Italians at set pieces. And while Long still didn't have any clear cut opportunities Murphy helped detract the attention of Barzagli, Ogbonna and Bonucci away from his speedy partner, and Ireland looked a better side for it.

Murphy played well yesterday evening but the ref was dreadful. That is the first game this Euros where I have seen the ref ignoring such blatant fouls.

Luckily NOI won otherwise they would have been really peed off against some of the decisions.

2 Norwich players making the goal. Shame they didn't play that well last season for their own team (NOT!).

Yeah totally agree considering every time the ball was anywhere near him he was manhandled by the crafty Italian defenders who always know how to foul and make it look legitimate.

The Naaarch pair did brilliantly to swing it their way and Murph gave a strong performance. Brady and Hoolihan showed us what we are lacking in Towns midfield. Expect the budgies to be around the top of the table this season unfortunately.

The Naaarch pair did brilliantly to swing it their way and Murph gave a strong performance. Brady and Hoolihan showed us what we are lacking in Towns midfield. Expect the budgies to be around the top of the table this season unfortunately.

Ohhhhh my aching head.......

but oh what a feeling!!!!!!! We're through from a seriously tough group and we've beaten the Italians again !

Murph was superb up front. In the Dublin pub I was watching it everyone gave him huge credit for his part in a great Irish performance. Never cheered so loudly for a goal by a Nodge player before (come to think of it, never cheered for a goal from a Nodge player before full stop). When Hoolahoop missed a sitter seconds earlier he got both barrels from me but was forgiven for that with his ball in to Brady for the goal.

I'd imagine the players are probably using ice baths etc today to repair aching muscles in time for Sunday. If there's any spare ice I could do with some for my head.. ooohhhh...

Bluebell, Italy are the worst team for employing tactical fouls taking a yellow card for the team, or just giving away a free kick in a safe area to kill the game. Of course you can't blame them, whatever works within the rules, but watching Italy has made me wonder if a professional foul shouldn't just be a straight red, especially those rugby type tackles. A fair attempt gone wrong still deserves a yellow, but I think that if in the ref's opinion there was no attempt to play the ball a straight red should be used.

That was the worst referee I have seen in the competition. He seemed scared to blow his whistle against the Italians. As a former referee, I cannot understand why he was unable to see the pushing and pulling in addition to the bringing down players with their bodies as well as their feet. The neck lock upon Murphy was an example of the referee bottling giving the penalty.

I hope this official does not get another game.

agreed about the ref. As a former ref myself, I leapt up from the sofa yelling penalty. How on earth could he not see that? There was actually a case for a red card there. I thought it was an obvious goal-scoring opportunity...
Really hope Murph plays in the next game and scores!

Yep Murph had a great game and same again for France I think - they wont like it up em !

Must have been like a sauna and think Murph ran his socks off but did all the stuff we know he can do and had a good header saved

Really great to see an ITFC player playing in the euros ?

Well done Ireland and well done Murph

bgexile, I agree that it should have been a penalty, but I think there is a weak case for a sending off. Regardless of there being a clear goal scoring opportunity, it didn't look like an intentional foul and since the rules have been changed (see link below), I don't think that should have been a red card.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36047575

Europablue, didn't you think it was an intentional foul? I beg to differ.

bgexile, having seen it a few times I'm not 100% certain, but I think it probably wasn't intentional. I'm sure that the referee couldn't be sure that it was intentional even on a second viewing. I believe that the referee would have been sure it was a penalty on second viewing.

Michael - agree about thrid placed teams - but then again not all of them went through so perhaps its a good compromise.

PLUS - but for a great save from Jo Hart England might have lost that game that we totally bossed and qualified in third !

go Daryl - you played about as well as you have all season - and that was actually very well indeed ... and but for a great save from their keeper you would have broken your duck.

I think he will start again!

i think that having the 3rd place team qualify is a great idea .. it stops any dead rubber games, blimey look at the drama in the portugal game or how the turks and albanians celebrated their wins as they still believed they had a chance of going through, at the end of the day if a team decides to sit back and be defensive its up to a good team to unlock it, look how many chances germany created v n ireland whereas england barely made the goalkeeper work v slovakia yet both teams adopted the same defensive approach,i agreed with slaven bilic when he said england didnt do enough in the last third whereas ian wright had his blinkers onj saying how well we played :))