Darren Randolph consoled by West Ham team-mate Dimitri Payet as France beat the Republic of Ireland to reach the quarter-final
Irish goalkeeper made nine saves in Lyon to keep Martin O'Neill's team in the game
DIMITRI PAYET showed what a class act he has become by consoling a teary West Ham team-mate after France progressed to the quarter-final of Euro 2016.
Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph was emotional after the Irish were sent home after a narrow 2-1 defeat in Lyon.
Ireland had taken the lead after just two minutes, Robbie Brady scoring a penalty, before Antoine Griezmann struck twice to break Irish hearts.
West Ham No 2 Randolph has had a superb tournament for Martin O'Neill's team and was again excellent against the hosts.
He made a whopping nine saves to keep the 10-men of Ireland fighting until the very last moment.
But once the final whistle went Randolph, 29, couldn't hide his emotion and had to fight back tears.
Rather than celebrate at the other end with his French team-mates, Payet went to Randolph to console the goalkeeper.
The West Ham star, who signed exactly one year ago, gave the goalkeeper a cuddle and a kiss on the cheek.
France will meet either England or Iceland, who meet Monday night, in the quarter-final.
Ireland right-back Seamus Coleman said: "We’re disappointed.
"We felt like it was there for us and we gave our all in this tournament.
"It shows how well we’ve done that we’re disappointed getting beat. Our fans are unbelievable and we would have loved to go a bit further for them, we hope we made them proud.
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He added: "We took a lot of belief from the Italy game, I think the Belgium game did well for us in the fact we realised how poor we were.
"Second half was always going to be tough but we couldn’t keep the door closed long enough."
France defender Patrice Evra said: "The Irish people should be proud of their team because it was difficult.
"At half time we said 'we’re at home, we cannot go out of this tournament and if we had to die on the pitch, that’s what we’re going to do.'"
