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McClean: We wanted to go out and prove a point

McClean: We wanted to go out and prove a point

Republic of Ireland midfielders James McClean and Jeff Hendrick were delighted to emerge from Denmark with a share of the spoils.

“It was a massive (result),” James McClean stated shortly after the final whistle.

“We showed our battling qualities and that’s two wins and a draw from the first three games.

"We have another game at home on Monday ad if we can win that it would be a good start.

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“We wanted to get after them and in the build-up to the game a couple of their players weren’t very complimentary towards us.

"So yeah, we wanted to go out and prove a point. It was fellow professionals criticising you and not in a nice way either.

Fair enough, they beat us 5-1 but we have drawn four other times with them so that shows they are not that much better than us themselves are they?

Republic of Ireland midfielder Jeff Hendrick was delighted to gain a draw in Copenhagen and referred to the Irish team’s character and togetherness as crucial elements in earning a point.

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“As the game went on we had to battle and dig deep to come from a goal behind,” Jeff Hendrick admitted to RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue.

“That showed great character from the lads and the lads coming off the bench to make an impact.

Then, Shane Duffy came up with another headed goal. Look at the size of him.

"For us, we are top of the group, another point on the board and we carry it on to Monday now.

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“I thought we matched them in the first half. Couple of half chances, we could have been a little bit better in the final third.

"Like you said, as the game went on we had to show our resilience, our character and that togetherness.

"We kept on battling and we got back into the game to get a valuable point.”

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