MICHAEL O’Neill, the Northern Ireland manager, today insisted his side deserved their place in the last 16 of the Euro 2016 finals despite losing 1-0 to world champions Germany in Paris.

Michael McGovern, the Hamilton goalkeeper, was outstanding in his country’s final Group C match against Joachim Loew’s team in the Parc des Princes yesterday evening.

Germany, who had won and drawn their opening two matches against Ukraine and Poland respectively, dominated the encounter and netted what turned out to be the only goal of the game through Mario Gomez after half an hour.

The narrow win meant they topped the group, but Northern Ireland still finished third in their section despite the loss and were better placed than Albania in Group A thanks to a superior goal difference.

When the Czech Republic lost 2-0 to Turkey in their final Group D outing in the Stade Bollaert-Delalis later on last night, it meant O’Neill’s charges progressed.

The outcome was greeted joyously by the Northern Ireland supporters in France and their manager, whose side will either play Wales in Paris or France in Lyon on Saturday, believes it is merited.

“We’re not going home,” he said. “I don’t think the fans were going home any time soon either way. We wanted to guarantee a place in the last 16, but you’re never going to play the world champions and not have that kind of night.

“It was very difficult for us, but we hung in there and defended great. Michael McGovern had a fantastic night and we have the opportunity now to play in the knockout stages.

“I think the players will take an awful lot from the performance. We don’t have any players in our squad that have played any European football, so when they step up the experience of playing against the level of opponent we have today can only help us."

O’Neill added: “Nobody sets up their team to just defend, but you look at the Germany team and you see Bayern, Real Madrid and so on. It’s not in my nature to set the team up to lose 7-0.

“But we earned the right to be here and we have earned the right to be in the last. I’m immensely proud that we are even playing here against the world champions in Paris."

O’Neill praised the vocal travelling supporters in Paris for their backing in a game they had to avoid a heavy defeat in in order to increase their chances of progressing to the last 16. "The fans are magnificent, the songs are magnificent and I’m glad they'll be singing at the weekend too,” he said.

McGovern, who enjoyed an exceptional evening and produced no fewer than nine saves, admitted he was determined not to jeopardise Northern Ireland’s chances of going through by letting in any more goals.

“It was important when we went 1-0 down that we didn’t concede again,” he said. “We gave ourselves a chance at qualifying. We needed other teams to do us a favour, but we gave it our best shot.”

McGovern, who is out of contract at New Douglas Park at the end of June, admitted his inspired individual performance against Germany may help him to win a move to a new club during the summer.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Playing at this level is something I relish. I love it at Hamilton, but I want to play at as high a level as I can and my contract is up in two weeks so hopefully my agent will be speaking to a few clubs,”

Loew, whose side had 26 attempts on target,, predicted Northern Ireland would struggle to progress to the quarter-finals if they approached their last 16 match in a similar manner.

"With all due respect to Northern Ireland, who did very well in qualifying, they were always going to throw everything into this match because it’s the game of their lives,” he said.

“It was to be expected that they fought hard and showed passion. It may be similar in the last 16 but if you play like that in the knockout rounds, you won’t get far."

Bayern Munich striker Thomas Muller, who has scored 10 goals in the World Cup finals, once again failed to net despite hitting the post and the crossbar.

But Loew insisted he was unconcerned about his forward’s inability to net and backed him to open his tally in their last 16 match this weekend.

"I'm not worried about Thomas Müller not scoring,” he said. “If he’d not had any chances I’d be more worried, but he had three or four really good ones and that shows that we’re doing well. He was close tonight and I’m sure he’ll score in the next match.”