Keane revels in Irish success

Robbie Keane was happy to savour the thrill of impending play-off victory in Tallinn after sampling the bitter taste of failure in Paris two years ago.

The Republic of Ireland skipper struck twice at the A Le Coq Arena on Friday night as his side blasted four unanswered goals past Estonia in the first leg of their Euro 2012 showdown.

Keane said: "It's amazing how football can turn around for you. The lads were devastated in the dressing room [in Paris], and now we don't know what to do with ourselves."

He added: "We have never been in this situation before, 4-0 up. It's only half-time, but we can certainly enjoy it. You don't get too many nights like this.

"But we will look forward to Tuesday night. There will obviously be a bit more calmness and a bit more ease with the game on Tuesday, rather than if we were 1-0 up or had drawn.

"It was tremendous and full credit to the lads. We knew we could get a result, there's no question about that, but I don't think anyone would have predicted that it was going to be 4-0.

"We certainly wanted to come and try to get one or two goals and then take them back to Dublin, but to win 4-0 in their backyard, it was an absolutely tremendous night for us."

Goalkeeper Shay Given was equally ecstatic as he considered the prospect of a first ever trip to the finals of the European Championships.

He said: "I just spoke to Aiden McGeady in the lift before the game and he was asking about the World Cup.

"I was saying I haven't been to the European Championships, and he said, 'Well, I haven't been to anything', so for people like that, it's going to be a great buzz if, hopefully, we can get there."