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04th Aug 2018

“They fight for every single moment” – Ireland’s hockey coach gives emotional post-match interview

Rory Cashin

“I didn’t think this would happen in our lifetime.”

Today has been an incredible day in Irish sporting history.

As we reported earlier, Ireland have reached the World Cup final after beating Spain on penalties.

It was a full-on nail-biter, still even after penalties, as Spain went first in sudden death, and McFerran stood down the Spanish captain. Gillian Pinder’s penalty, Ireland’s sixth of the day, saw her score her second of the day, sweeping the ball past the Spanish keeper and sweeping Ireland into their first ever Hockey World Cup final.

If you haven’t seen the goal yet, then we fully recommend you check it out.

After the win, RTE Sport spoke to the team manager Graham Shaw, and he was clearly overcome with the fantastic result that had played out.

“This is just incredible for our sport. I didn’t think this would happen in our lifetime. I’m just so proud of them.

“I’ve never been involved with a team so together my whole entire life. They’re best friends. They fight for every single moment with each other out there and they never give up.

“They stay together and even when the hard times came in the penalty shootout they still believed. Seriously impressive group of people.”

Ireland are set to play the winner of the other semi-final, with fifth-ranked Australia and defending World Cup champions the Netherlands playing on Sunday.