A host of Irish football legends appeared on RTE's 'The Late Late show' this evening to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the FAI.
Icons of the game including David O'Leary, Packie Bonner, Niall Quinn and Shay Given stopped by to chat to Ryan Tubridy about the Ireland's success on the world stage under Jack Charlton in the 80's and 90's. Naturally, David O'Leary's legendary penalty against Romania to send Ireland into the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup was a topic of discussion.
"I remember just thinking, 'Don't mess this up," O'Leary hilariously recalled.
"Don't mess this up, the whole country's watching you.
"And when I did score. I just saw this explosion of green from behind the goal."
Of course, O'Leary wasn't the only hero of that penalty shootout. Packie Bonner played a huge role in getting Ireland to the quarter-finals and it was his save of Daniel Timofte's penalty that put O'Leary in position to seal our passage to the last eight of the competition.
According to Bonner, it all could have been much different if the game had taken place a few weeks earlier.
"About a month earlier, I went the wrong way for nine out of ten penalties," Bonner recalled.
"The feeling of course when you save a penalty in a shootout, you don't have to catch it, all you've got to do is just keep it out of the net.
"And let's face it, it wasn't a great penalty was it.
"Timofte's penalty, it was a lovely height, but who cares!"
During the chat, Bonner reflected on just how much the National teams success impacted the country as a whole.
"We had a sense.
"Even to this day, people come up to me and say listen, thanks a million for allowing all of our family to come together."
According to Niall Quinn, much of Ireland's success at that time was down to Jack Charlton. The world cup winner for England in 1966 enjoyed a ten year spell in charge of Ireland, during which the Boys in Green qualified for Euro '88, Italia '90 and USA '94, having never qualified for an international tournament prior to this.
"Jack had that way about him, he melted people," said Quinn.
"People generally loved what he was doing.
"He had his detractors, but we were doing things that coaches are doing off the ball now.
"They're putting their defensive systems up in place 30 years later the way Jack had us.
"And they're getting great credit, like Klopp with the press and all these different things."
Prior to Italia '90, David O'Leary had never taken a penalty before in his life. 32 years on from that moment when a Nation held its breath, how is O'Leary rewarded for his heroics?
That's right, free pints.
"I had two free ones yesterday.
"Thank God I didn't miss that penalty"
Thank God indeed.
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