Jon Walters double sends jubilant Ireland to finals

Jon Walters was the two-goal hero, as the Republic of Ireland beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 at the Aviva Stadium to progress to the finals of the European Championship in France next summer. 

The Stoke forward, Ireland's stand-out player in this qualifying campaign, opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 24 minutes, then ended any hopes of a comeback from their opponents with a brilliant cushioned volley 20 minutes from time in a 3-1 aggregate win. 

Walters will rightly dominate the headlines, but manager Martin O'Neill will surely also lavish praise on the centre-back pairing of Ciaran Clark and Richard Keogh, who nullified the threat of both Edin Dzeko and then substitute Vedad Ibisevic as the away side hurled bodies forward in the final 20 minutes.

Clark, who has been on the fringes of the first team at Aston Villa, and Keogh, who plays Championship football with Derby County, were the bedrock on which this famous win was built.

Ireland had their moments of luck, not least the decision of Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers to award a penalty midway through the first half when Ervin Zukanovic seemed to try to take evasive action to get his hand out the way of Daryl Murphy's cross from the right. 

Walters accepted the gift greedily, rolling an assured penalty past Asmir Begovic in the Bosnia goal to get the Lansdowne Road stadium rocking.

But there was no hint of fortune about the second goal, 20 minutes from time, with the Liverpool-born Walters superbly finishing at the far post from Robbie Brady's deflected free-kick.

It completes a remarkable Euro 2016 comeback for O'Neill's side, who looked on the brink of elimination following last November's 1-0 defeat to Scotland atCeltic Park and the 1-1 draw with Gordon Strachan's side in June in Dublin.

.Did Martin O'Neill win the tactical battle?

O’Neill outshone his opposite number Mehmed Bazdarevic in the battle of the managers, with Ireland's 4-5-1 formation dominating the midfield and breaking up any Bosnian attempts to retain possession.

Bosnia’s attacking efforts were mostly limited to forays down the right-hand flank, particularly through the impressive Ognjen Vranjes and Edin Visca, but in the second half O'Neill brought on James McClean to add some steel to help protect left-back Robbie Brady.