Well Robbie, bet you never faced marking like that before?

"Nah, I've faced harder than that."

Yeah?

"Ah yeah."

Who was harder?

"Steve Bruce (Birmingham City) for one, I can tell ya."

And there we were, in the players' tunnel, worrying that young Robbie Keane would emerge battered and bruised after, what seemed from the vantage point of the stands anyway, to have been a `battering and bruising' encounter with the Argentinean defence. Huh! Not a bother.

"Yeah their number three got me a few times but you have to be a man to take it," said the 17-yearold. "It was no problem really."

Were you very nervous out there? "Na, I don't really get nervous to be honest with you. It was no problem, I felt confident. Niall (Quinn) was brilliant through the game. He told me Tuesday in training we'd just have a laugh in the match. I couldn't believe that. Have a laugh? But it really worked, settled me down tremendously, I tell ya."

"It would have been nice to get a goal but just being there was the main thing. I've watched Ireland play so many times at Lansdowne Road so to be out there playing myself was something else. The way they chanted my name at the end was brilliant."

What did Mick say to you after the game? "Ah, he was delighted with our second-half performance and he told me `well done son', so that was great."

Less content with his performance, particularly in the first period of the game, was Gary Breen. "On a personal level I was dreadful in the first half. I felt I did a bit better in the second but it was very disappointing to start like that. Collectively too we had a bad start, we gave them too much respect and they punished us for it."

"The tone was set when they got the two goals but really they could have had a couple more, they let us off the hook. Their front players were very good but the midfield was strong too - any time Batistuta or the other lads made a run invariably their midfielders would find them. All round their passing and movement was exceptional."

"We began to get among them then, gave them less time to settle on the ball and improved a lot in the second half. We got the crowd going as well, which was nice," said Breen. "But I can't be happy with the way I played."

"What did you expect, they're a quality side," said Steve Staunton of Argentina's first-half display. "You just have to look at some of the names they have out there. There's no doubt, they'll be a force in the World Cup.