Martin O'Neill said his side "played some phenomenal stuff" in the Republic of Ireland's 1-0 win over Italy on Tuesday (22nd June) and joked that getting a win over France in the round of 16 would be "easy", before adding that the Euro 2016 hosts were "strong favourites to beat us".

SOUNDBITE: (English) Martin O'Neill, Republic of Ireland manager (Q: Have you ever been prouder of a group of players?)

"No I don't think I have. I have had some great nights, but international level it's still relatively new to me. But this was very special, very special tonight. Enormous support, kept us going throughout the game and I think that the players and the fans fed each other and it became rather emotional at the end, but it was a great win. We deserved to win the game - I thought the chance had gone when the goalkeeper saved from Wes (Hoolahan) and I didn't want it to be one of those nights, if only's. It looked as if we should have had a penalty - it was pretty clear-cut - but it doesn't matter now. We have won the game, we deserved to win it and we dominated for incredible periods of the game and played some phenomenal stuff."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Martin O'Neill, Republic of Ireland manager (Q: The round of 16 is a different prospect, whereas tonight might have effectively been knockout football, how do you go about engineering a win in the next stage of the competition?)

"Well it is definite we are playing France, isn't it? Mmmm...easy. No. So we'll have a think about it when we get home. Obviously we are travelling back to Versailles tonight and we will have a think about it in the morning. It won't be easy for us, we have got through. I don't really want to think that this is the end for us, we need a performance like tonight to stand any chance and we have to find the energy again from somewhere. This is tournament football and players came in and played, that's our third game in nine days, same for a lot of other sides and perhaps we've got a couple of days less to rest than France have. So that is a big advantage to them, but still, listen, who knows? We'll give it a lot of consideration over the next two days."