15 / 60
“It’s been a good campaign so far, probably as
good as we realistically could have hoped for,”
said Hearts striker Lafferty.
“Before a ball was kicked I think everyone
expected Germany to win the group, which is
understandable as they are the holders.
“We targeted second place. Given what we
achieved in the qualifiers for the Euros and then
making the knockout stages there was no reason
to believe we were one campaign wonders.”
He explained there was a real belief in the squad
that Euro 2016 was never going to be a one-off
and he says the squad have “given ourselves a
chance”.
The forward added: “We all know that one
second-placed team in the nine groups will miss
out on a play-off but there’s no point in looking
that far ahead just yet.
“The big aim for us is to secure second and then
we’ll start to look at the table of second-placed
teams. Until that’s done we have to focus on the
games in hand.
“The experiences of the last campaign will
certainly help everyone. We’ve gone to potentially
tricky places like the Faroes and won and then we
came from behind to get what turned out to be a
massive point at home to Hungary.”
www.irishfa.com13