Soccer: Robbie Keane was happy to savour the thrill of impending play-off victory in Tallinn after sampling the bitter taste of failure in Paris two years ago.

The Republic of Ireland skipper struck twice at the A Le Coq Arena last night as his side blasted four unanswered goals past Estonia in the first leg of their Euro 2012 showdown.

Barring a collapse of epic proportions at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night — and even Ireland’s mile of play-off misery has never come close to anything of that magnitude — they will be heading for Poland and Ukraine next summer.

Understandably, Keane and his team-mates wore broad grins on faces which had struggled to hold back tears at the Stade de France back in November 2009 after villain of the piece Thierry Henry had torn their World Cup dreams apart.

Keane said: “It’s amazing how football can turn around for you. The lads were devastated in the dressing room [in Paris], and now we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We have never been in this situation before, 4-0 up. It’s only half-time, but we can certainly enjoy it. You don’t get too many nights like this.

“But we will look forward to Tuesday night. There will obviously be a bit more calmness and a bit more ease with the game on Tuesday, rather than if we were 1-0 up or had drawn.”

Goalkeeper Shay Given was equally ecstatic as he considered the prospect of a first ever trip to the finals of the European Championships. He said: “I just spoke to Aiden McGeady in the lift before the game and he was asking about the World Cup.

“I was saying I haven’t been to the European Championships, and he said, ‘Well, I haven’t been to anything’, so for people like that, it’s going to be a great buzz if, hopefully, we can get there.

“We have got a great bunch of lads and they are all delighted. They are all hugging each other in there and it’s a great night to be Irish.”