Martin O'Neill said Ireland cursed their challenging draw ahead of Euro 2016, but hailed his team's "togetherness" as Robbie Brady scored a late winner to earn victory against Italy on Wednesday and a spot in the last 16.
With time winding down, Wes Hoolahan played a near-perfect cross into Brady, who headed home to give Ireland the win and third place in Group E. They finish behind Italy and Belgium in the table and will now play France on June 26 in Lyon (3 p.m. CET/9 a.m. ET, ESPN).
"I remember when the draw was made, cursed your luck for a while and then get on with it," O'Neill said after the match. "Knowing we had to win a game at some stage, they came up really big tonight, really big.
"It's a great game for us [against France], we're playing the host nation. We want to play as strong as we did tonight and naturally we will need to -- it will be a big test for us and one we're looking forward to emotionally.
"We had to have everyone at it tonight; to not drop tempo. The younger players coming through tonight. You would have thought [Shane] Duffy would have been playing his 35th international, but so were the whole team and every one of them was fantastic."
The manager also gave credit to assist-man Hoolahan, who bounced back to make the cross in to Brady after missing an easy chance minutes before from an Italy turnover.
"He [Wes Hoolahan] did keep his head and he put in a lovely ball, but Brady still had to go and head it and he's gone as bravely as anything to do that," O'Neill said.
"The togetherness has been evident in our play. But we have a really great spirit about the side; we needed energy in the team tonight and we had to be dominant in the match and that's why I picked the team I did. Everyone that came in tonight really rose to the occasion."