Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill has revealed that he would have taken his side's playoff showdown against Bosnia-Herzegovina at the start of their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
O'Neill's men finished in third place in Group D behind Germany and Poland, narrowly missing out on automatically securing a spot in the competition in France.
However, the 63-year-old has insisted that he has no regrets about how his team's campaign turned out after beating world champions Germany.
O'Neill told reporters: "We have earned the right to be there, particularly with our results against the world champions, and we have accumulated the points. We are pleased to be here.
"I think if you had mentioned to me a way back when the group was first introduced that we would have a home and away match in the play-offs to try to qualify regardless of who was available for us at the time, I probably would have taken that."
Ireland play Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first leg of their playoff on Friday.
Simon Sinclair
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