Dundalk midfielder Robbie Benson was reflecting on his best moment in football after the Airtricity League side progressed to the Champions League play-off stages with a 3-1 aggregate win over BATE Borisov.
The Airtricity League champions had lost the first-leg 1-0 but overcame the deficit against their Belarusian opponents through a goal in either half from David McMillan and a late third from substitute Benson.
90: GOOOAAAALLL!
— eir Sport (@eirSport) August 2, 2016
Dundalk 3-0 BATE (Agg: 3-1). What a finish from Benson! What a night for @DundalkFC! #LOIinEurope https://t.co/Mnbe5WgM4A
Stephen Kenny’s side go into contention to face Manchester City, Porto, Villarreal, Roma and others for a place in the group stages and have the safety net of playing in the Europa League even if they are eliminated at the next stage.
Benson said on the club’s official audioboom channel: “It’s tough to sum up, when you hear people say it will take a while to sink in, that’s how I feel now.
“It’s the best feeling I have had in football and the lads feel the same. We know that we have eight more games at least in Europe and that will go a long way.
“We’re not content with the Europa League we want to make the Champions League.
“It’s an incredible feeling, it’s great for everyone, to be able to do it with this group of lads is an incredible feeling.”
Victory represents one of the finest achievements of any Irish team, and will earn them a reported cash windfall of £5.89m.
Fellow midfielder Stephen O’Donnell added: “Its an unbelievable achievement, we deserved it, we knew we couldn’t play any worse than last week, it was crucial coming away with a 1-0 defeat and we played a lot more to our potential tonight and I think you’ve seen what we can do when we get it together.
“There’s no superstars on this team, everyone is as good as each other.”
