Fair play to McClean for fronting up, this can’t have been easy.
Few Irish fans watching Ireland lose 5-1 to Denmark could explain what actually happened on a night that proved even more disastrous than anyone could have anticipated, so one can only imagine how the players are feeling.
As ever, James McClean, probably Ireland’s best player throughout the qualifying campaign, fronted up for a television interview immediately after the game, although he was at a loss to articulate how things had gone so wrong.
On the verge of tears when speaking to Tony O’Donoghue, McClean said: “I don’t know what to say… we shot ourselves, you know what I mean, we got a great start and then we… ah Tony, I don’t know what to say.
“I am just devastated, not just for us, but for everyone, it’s been a long campaign, but we just let ourselves down.”
Asked by O’Donoghue if “heart and spirit wasn’t enough”, McClean hinted that the occasion might have got to the Irish team and freely admitted that the Danes, for whom Christian Eriksen was outstanding, “were just better than us” on the night.
You can see the interview in full below.
"They were just better than us… I don't know what to say… I am just devastated" – Fair play to James McClean for fronting #Irlden pic.twitter.com/j2dJlQbg8g
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 14, 2017
