Euro 2016: Ireland boss Martin O’Neill has a laugh with Irish TV as he does some keepy-uppy before blasting a ball at a colleague
MARTIN O'NEILL he is not as serious as his thinking-man's demeanour has you believe.
The Republic of Ireland boss was a pundit for TV3's coverage of the Euro 2016 final between Portugal and France.
And he had a right old joke when someone gave him a replica matchball to do some tricks with.
O'Neill, 64, did some juggling before smashing the ball at a colleague down the hallway, which gave the onlooking entourage a right laugh.
Ireland were knocked out of the tournament by the losing finalists France in the end after putting up one heck of a fight in Lyon.
Robbie Brady had given the Irish a thrilling lead, scoring from the spot after only two minutes, before Antoine Greizmann's second-half brace sent the hosts through.
But with some free time on his hands, O'Neill wanted to do some punditry in France for Irish telly - as he has done for the BBC in past major tournaments.
The former Nottingham Forest and Norwich midfielder showed off some ace skills from years gone by.
O'Neill was a key part of the incredible Brian Clough side at Forest that won the European Cup two seasons in a row.
He netted 48 times for Forest in ten years and it is not hard to see why.
After juggling the ball, he released an unexpected volley into a crowd of TV3 crew - and seemed to set off an alarm - as the volley whacked into the torso of one unsuspecting victim.
After beating Ireland, France made it through to the final but they failed to beat Portugal in Paris, losing 1-0 in extra time thanks to former Swansea ace Eder's incredible long-range effort.
O'Neill also offered up his typically cerebral opinion on the tournament.
The Irish boss picked apart Germany manager Joachim Low complaining about the smaller sides being present at Euro 2016.
O'Neill said: "Just getting back to Low talking about the dilution of the competition. In fact those things are actually served to help those sides because if they are in tournament mode, they should start to feel that they should get through the groups and get geared up for it.
"I have a bit of sympathy with him in this sense, that they, in the last couple of games played Italy, they ended up getting through on penalties when they had played Italy off the pitch.
"And in fairness they should have beaten France as well.
"He has a moan about everything, he had a moan about us the time that we beat in the game in October, so he does like to moan a bit but he doesn't like to moan when they win the game.
"But I understand that if you're one of the bigger nations you might think that some of the other teams are a little bit like playing FA Cup matches, where the big sides didn't want to go away to a non-league side in case they might be embarrassed and lose the game."