- Ben Blake reports from Versailles
AFTER TWO BELOW-par performances at Euro 2016, James McCarthy was expected to be dropped for last night’s vital match with Italy.
When the teams were named 90 minutes before kick-off, however, it was Glenn Whelan who found himself on the bench as Martin O’Neill kept faith with the Everton midfielder.
McCarthy admits going through a hard time after receiving criticism from fans and the media for his displays against Sweden and Belgium.
But the 25-year-old went some way to redeeming himself in the holding role on Wednesday night — putting pressure on the Italian midfield and making vital interceptions.
“I was gutted but my family was constantly on the phone making sure everything was fine,” McCarthy revealed about his rough patch. “My team-mates and the management have all stuck by me and hopefully now we can go that bit further.”
He added: “I wanted to repay him (O’Neill). He’s showed a bit of faith in me. It was a low point in my career, but team-mates, family… everyone was on the phone. Friends were there for me, picked me up and I went again.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling tonight (last night), especially the fans, who were unbelievable there tonight. We go again on Sunday and we need to make sure that isn’t the end of it. We need to make progress again.
We’re in the last-16 but we’re not just going into the game thinking ‘Oh, that’s good. We’ve got there’. We want to push on now and go one better again and make sure we don’t let ourselves down.”
With Ireland booking a date with France in the knockout stages, McCarthy is likely to come up against world class talent in the shape of Dimitri Payet, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante in Lyon this Sunday, and he says they will need to get in the faces of their opponents.
“They’re top players,”added McCarthy. “We’ll respect them but we’ll certainly make sure we’re on it. We showed it here and against Sweden. It was a good team performance again.
“We won’t sit back and look at these players playing passes. We’ll get up against people and make sure they know they’re in a game.
“It’s going to be tough. It’s what you dream as a kid coming to major tournaments and playing against home nations. We want to make sure that we go out and give it our best shot. We’ll sit down and talk about France. The tactics to make sure we cover everything and go again.”
Listen to The42′s Ben Blake on the 98FM Euro 2016 Daily podcast throughout the tournament
