Phil Egan

That was the high bar.

Ireland in a World Cup thought it was going to be always the case.

That's available to listen back to now for full in your OTB daily podcast feed for free.

Dion has also covered many major tournaments and here he recalls the Battle of Marseille at the Euros in 2016 when some Russian and English football fans clashed.

Sunday I think was, Monday was the game, Sunday was

day of the full-scale riot in Marseille.

We had gone out to kind of an Irish bar just outside Marseille.

I was staying in a hotel about 50 kilometers outside Marseille, it was the only place I could find, with a journalist, a news reporter from the Observer.

And he was driving.

I didn't drive at the time.

So he was driving.

So I was dependent on him for a lift.

So we had gone out to the Irish bar on the Sunday night and it was all kicking off in Marseille.

I was like, good to be out here.

And he's like, I've got to go in there.

I said, okay, yeah, you've got to come with me.

Like, if you want to get back to your hotel, you've got to come with me.

So we had to leave the safety of the bar and drive

right into into the middle of the riot so we had this little white pewter i remember and um every time like i didn't know this guy it's very nice guy but every time i thought like this will do so we'll just try and go a bit further and we literally drove down a side street beside the riot like and he just said this is perfect

Let's get out.