"I didn't know where to run, then I saw my wife and two boys (Paula, Sam and Jacob) in the crowd, so I just made for them." - Matt Holland recalls his first thoughts after scoring Ireland's equalising goal.

"He basically said that we'd been at it two years to get to this position and not to give it up lightly. He said to give it a fight, and that's what we did." - Holland on Mick McCarthy's half-time talk.

"It was a fantastic goal and there was nothing that our goalkeeper could have done, but we're all a little disappointed. We feel we could have done a little more. We're not satisfied because we came here to win the game." - Arsenal's Lauren on the feeling in the Cameroon camp.

"I just took a touch, hit it and hoped for the best really. One minute I thought it was going in and the next it looked it was going wide. It was going all over the place, to be honest, but in the end it came back of the post. That's just the way it goes." - Robbie Keane on the 84th-minute strike that almost won the game for Ireland.

"At half-time Mick said to me and Damien (Duff) to stay right up against them. We did it and seemed to get more joy from then on. I felt I was getting stronger and stronger. They seemed to tire. It surprised me, but it showed in the performance." - Keane on the change in the game after the break.

"We started poorly. We struggled to get into it, I know I certainly did. They seemed to be stronger in the man-on-man situations, but we turned it. We got into them in the second half and I thought we ended up being unlucky not to win it." - Kevin Kilbane

"I don't know what changed, maybe the sun went down. Whatever happened, it felt like a very different game in the second half. We created chances, played very well. We gave them a lot of problems." - Shay Given.

"I think the Roy Keane saga went against us. The Irish players felt they had an even greater duty to play well without him. I was hoping that they would have brought him back before the game - if they had done that there would have been turmoil in the camp." - Cameroon manager Winfried Schafer.

"Yes we won a lot of headers but we overdid the crosses. With the quick players that we have, we should have played more on the ground. That's how we got the first goal, but we kept hitting the ball high, and I think that was costly for us in the end." - Schafer again.

"The Irish did what they are best at, they put pressure on us in the second half and made things very difficult for us. Anybody who underestimates them will suffer for it." - Schafer .

"I think we didn't play together in the second half. It was difficult for me, I was the only player in the midfield. They had a very good midfield, Ireland. Some of our players were very nervous. For the next game, we have to keep calm and keep together." - Cameroon's Marc Vivien Foe.

"We knew we could rise to the task. We've done it before. It was all put behind us three or four days ago. We knew the job, today was no different.

"We settled down and I think we've settled for the rest of the tournament. We've had a long time together, this was something we've all been building up for." - Mark Kinsella.