The Republic of Ireland face the daunting task of defeating Italy in their final Group E game in order to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament at Euro2016.

The Irish team succeeded in similar circumstances in the 1994 World Cup, but national manager Martin O'Neill thinks that it might seem too long ago for his players, including star defender Seamus Coleman who was also present at the pre-match press conference.

Rather, O'Neill wants his players to draw inspiration from the shock 1-0 win over Germany in the qualifying game in Dublin in October as they get set to take on the Azzurri in Lille.

He said: "For players of Seamus' age, it [1994] seems a long time ago.

"We have got our own recent memories ourselves to inspire us, no more so than the night in October time when we beat the world champions.

"When you say it like that there, it just seems to disappear into the ether, but we beat the world champions on a night when we had to win and that's extraordinary, an extraordinary result.

"They weren't a normal side, they were the team that just 18 months earlier or whatever it was had gone to Brazil and won the World Cup, so that was a great moment for us.

"That was inspirational enough for us to go and beat Bosnia over the two games in the play-off match. I think that's where we drew the inspiration from.

"We don't have to go back to '94, we can just draw on that because it's the set of players that did it and it's that set of players that gave us the opportunity to come here.

"As much as we have enjoyed the days that we have been here, we'd like to stay a little but longer, so that inspiration will come from that evening against Germany and the night against Bosnia."