Sunday 11 October 2015 23:26, UK
Martin O'Neill admits he would have taken a third-place finish in Republic of Ireland's European Qualifying group before the win over Germany last week.
O'Neill's side will now have to get through a play-off next month to reach Euro 2016 in France after a 2-1 defeat in Poland left them third in Group D.
And O'Neill, despite being disappointed at his side's showing after a famous night in Dublin against the world champions, says they have a good chance of reaching the tournament.
He told Sky Sports: "Before we'd played Germany, if you'd offered [third place] to me I'd have taken it.
"We had a fantastic win against Germany which gave us the confidence to come here. We didn't quite make it, but we're still there.
"We're fighting strong, and whoever we get in the two games we'll have as good a chance as they will have."
In what was an open affair in Warsaw, Ireland fell to Robert Lewandowski's winning header just before half-time, but O'Neill says his side were sometimes architects of their own downfall.
"I'm obviously disappointed, we knew it was going to be a difficult game for us, and maybe we didn't have the same energy as we had against Germany.
"We made life difficult for ourselves at times, but we've got two games coming up and we're still in a chance.
"We had to go for it, particularly in the second half. We also felt like we could score a goal, and I actually thought we would.
"Right until the end we were there. But we were just lacking that cohesiveness that was there against Germany."
The draw for the Euro 2016 qualifying play-offs will take place on Sunday, October 18 at 10am, live on Sky Sports News HQ.
