Jonathan Walters seals Euro spot for Ireland

Dublin: Jon Walters was the toast of Lansdowne Road as his brace against Bosnia-Herzegovina in a 2-0 victory fired Ireland to next summer’s European Championship Finals in France.

The Stoke City striker missed Friday’s play-off first leg through suspension but he more than made up for that with a goal in each half that saw Martin O’Neill’s men progress 3-1 on aggregate.

“There was a whole team of heroes out there — we got there in the end. It is the best moment of my career in any shirt — to qualify for the European Championship finals is unbelievable,” Walters, the hero of the night, told Sky Sports.

The hosts were simply better in every department, bullying the visitors in the first half and taking their chances when they arrived.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this team. I hold the players in the highest esteem. They don’t have everything, but courage and determination are things they have in abundance,” said O’Neill.

With an away goal advantage, Ireland could have set out to merely defend, but O’Neill sent out a team to attack with Walters starting while retaining the set piece skills of Robbie Brady — who scored in Zenica — at left back.

Bazdarevic made three changes to his team with Sead Kolasinac, Ongjen Vranjes and Haris Medujanin starting as he returned to a typical 4-2-3-1 formation, with Edin Dzeko spearheading the attack.

Ireland came into the game on the back of eight home games without defeat, with last month’s victory over Germany the standout result, but few of the home crowd expected anything less than a tense night.

Miralem Pjanic wasn’t influencing things as he would have liked for the visitors, while Dzeko was also a fringe figure with just one off target shot to show at the break. Spahic was the first to go into the referee’s book when he snapped into a tackle on Hendrick, and he was soon followed by Senad Lulic, protesting what was a questionable penalty award against Zukanovic, who handled Murphy’s cross.

Walters, increasingly central to O’Neill’s set up, was nerveless as he calmly found the bottom left of the goal, giving his former Stoke City team mate Begovic no chance.

Ireland lived more dangerously in the first 10 minutes of the second half with Clark, first, required to clear Medunjanin’s in-swinging free kick, and then Lulic should really have tested Randolph following good work by Edin Visca.