Albion star Gareth McAuley hails Euro glory as 'career pinnacle'

Michael O'Neill's team secured their place in next summer's finals with a 3-1 win over Greece on Thursday night, becoming the first Northern Ireland side to qualify for a major tournament in 30 years.

McAuley, who together with Baggies team-mates Chris Brunt and Jonny Evans has played a crucial role in the qualifying campaign, admitted finding it hard to put his emotions into words.

"This will be the pinnacle, probably, of our whole careers - getting to a major tournament," he said. "What is means for the country is ridiculous."

Knowing a win would be good enough to secure qualification, O'Neill's men made the perfect start when they took a first half lead through Steven Davis.

Josh Magennis doubled the advantage early in the second half before Davis made sure of victory, with Christos Aravidis' late consolation for the visitors not enough to dampen the mood.

A delighted Brunt said: "You couldn't ask for a better script really. You get the goal in the first half and obviously it was a bit nervy before the half-time when they hit the post.

"But the start of the second half and Davo's goal sort of sealed it. I think everything went to plan, we couldn't ask for better.

"We have had a lot of bad times at Windsor Park and this was one of the better nights. It's difficult to put into words how good it feels."

While Brunt, McAuley and Evans and reason to celebrate, their Baggies team-mates Darren Fletcher and James Morrison had very different emotions after Scotland were eliminated.

Fletcher described Robert Lewandowski's last-gasp equaliser for Poland in a 2-2 draw as a "low blow".

He added: "We felt we were making a lot of progress, but ultimately we failed to do what we set out to do or even make the play-offs."