TYREIK WRIGHT was in a buoyant mood after helping Ireland beat Montenegro 3-1 in a pivotal Euros qualifier this evening.
The Aston Villa youngster slotted home the third goal as the Boys in Green significantly boosted their qualification hopes.
“I’d say it’s the most important game that I have played in, I love playing for Ireland,” he told reporters afterwards.
“I give everything for my country, we’re just looking forward to the next game, it’s probably the biggest game of our careers, we’re looking to go to Italy and top the group.”
Attention now turns to Sweden’s match with Italy on Thursday. An Italy loss would mean all three teams could still qualify, a draw would seal second place at least for Ireland and a chance to top the group by beating Italy in their final game, while an Italy win in Helsingborg would ensure the Republic go through to the playoffs.
“I don’t really like watching football but I will be keeping an eye on the result, certainly and push on to Tuesday,” said Wright.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround for Crawford’s side whose hopes looked over at one point before two wins against Sweden provided optimism again.
“That Sweden game at home gave us that little bit of hope and then going over there to get another three points just spurred us on. It’s a special group, it’s like family, everyone is close together, even the staff.”
Wright continued: “I’m not happy with my goals and assists this season, it’s something I am looking to build on and today meant a lot to me. This was my third of the campaign but I’ll be looking to get more on Tuesday.
“We’re looking to make history as a group, and I am fully confident we can do it on Tuesday, depending on the result on Thursday but we will make sure we are ready and we’ll hopefully get the three points.”
Boss Jim Crawford was in a similarly jubilant mood afterwards.
“I’m exceptionally proud of the players. I think we showed today it’s a squad game. I think the easy thing would be the same XI starts that played against Bosnia but we just felt we needed to freshen it up and it shows the group that was out, Liam Kerrigan comes in, fantastic performance. Again proud of Liam, proud of the boys, proud of the staff, the amount of work that goes on, that the players don’t realise the amount of work the staff do to get camps right.
“For me, we’ll see how Thursday goes and see what we’ll have to do in the game against Italy. If it’s a dead rubber, you might throw in a couple of lads that deserve a chance.”
While their goalscoring feats mean the likes of Wright, Kerrigan and Will Smallbone will grab the headlines, Crawford also praised the defensive display, which was much improved from last October, when Ireland suffered a 2-1 defeat in Montenegro.
“Over in Montenegro, they were physical, they scored two early goals through the striker [Nikola] Krstovic, who went on and played for the senior team in the last window. He was one of the key players that they identified.
“In fairness, Mark [McGuinness] and Jake [O'Brien] will tell you themselves that he got the better of them that evening, but Eiran and Mark today I thought did really well against him. He was nowhere near as much of a threat as he was in Montenegro. We knew they’d be physical and what have you but the lads did well today.
“I felt that it was so important that we needed fresh legs. I’m sure there were people saying: ‘Hold on, you’ve beaten Bosnia 3-0 and you’re changing the team.’ You’re giving a left-back a debut, Eiran Cashin a debut, but Joel Bagan, who played for us against Bosnia, he only had two training sessions. before the game against Bosnia, so for his own safety, there was every chance he would have picked up an injury if he went 90 minutes again. We knew we had to change it and Tayo came in and did a good job and Eiran Cashin looked composed and he’ll get better the fitter he gets, there’s no doubt about it. But it was certainly a nice victory today.”
Crawford added that the outcome of Thursday’s match between Sweden and Italy won’t impact how Ireland approach their final match versus the Italians next week.
“Every game we play, we want to win. There’s no doubt about it. And same goes with Italy. Even if it does become a dead rubber, you’ll get a playoff but we’ll be going over there to win, to keep this momentum that the group have.”