Dara O’Shea urges Ireland to use World Cup disappointment for Euro 2028 campaign

Dara O’Shea has urged his Republic of Ireland team-mates to use the disappointment of a heartbreaking World Cup play-off exit to fuel their bid to qualify for Euro 2028.

Ireland face North Macedonia in Dublin in a friendly on Tuesday still hurting from the knowledge that they were four minutes away from hosting Denmark instead, with a place at this summer’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico on the line.

Thursday’s penalty shoot-out defeat in the Czech Republic after a 2-2 draw in a game they had led 2-0 has left its scars, but Ipswich defender O’Shea is already looking to the European qualification campaign.

The 27-year-old told a press conference: “It’s a massive disappointment for us as players and the fans that we don’t have that game and an opportunity to go to the World Cup.

“But we’re professionals and you have to move on to the next game, and the next game is really important for us as a group.

“You have aspirations and hopes and dreams of getting to a World Cup and we wanted to have that in our hands, on Tuesday night we wanted to have a game to get to the World Cup.

“But that’s football. We’ve all experienced disappointments and different things that haven’t gone our way.

“It’s important to bounce back with the right mentality now and not forget all the good that we’ve done and keep building on that.

“We spoke about how we’re building towards Euro 2028 now and it’s important that we keep going in the right direction, and I feel we have been.”

Heimir Hallgrimsson’s men grew into the campaign after a disappointing start, building upon a scratchy home win over Armenia to defeat eventual Group F winners Portugal before a 3-2 victory in Hungary earned them their play-off semi-final trip to Prague.

The