Keane pleased to do Ireland duty

• Robbie Keane salutes team ethic after scoring three against Gibraltar
• John O'Shea calls the Ireland goalscorer "an absolute legend"
• "We've given ourselves a great chance of qualifying," says David Forde
• Roy Chipolina admits Gibraltar have hard lessons to learn
• Next games: Germany v Republic of Ireland, Gibraltar v Georgia (Tuesday)

Robbie Keane, Ireland forward
You are judged on scoring goals and the most important thing for any striker is to score goals and get your confidence up.

Tonight people will look at the result and think it was easy, but it was because we made it that way with how we played. Holland struggled for 70-odd minutes to break Kazakhstan down and that was something that was playing in the back of my mind. So it was important we got that first goal and when we got it, it settled everyone down.

The important thing is getting the first goal. You can't go into a game thinking 'how many goals are we going to score today?' because it will usually bite you. You have to respect everyone you are playing against.

As you get older you appreciate that it's about the team more. When you're young, you are hungry and a lot more selfish. As you get older you appreciate the team and the team always comes first.

John O'Shea, Ireland defender
We've just played a team that is new to the competition and now we are going to play the team that just won the World Cup, so we are under no illusions that it will be a very different test on Tuesday. But it's one that we are looking forward to.

Robbie [Keane] is an absolute legend, purely because of his goalscoring and his finishing. I'm just delighted he is in our team because when we get chances, he is there. Hopefully we can create a few chances for him on Tuesday because nine times out of ten they will be in the back of the net. We won't get as many chances against Germany as we did against Gibraltar, so when we do get them we have to put them away.

David Forde, Ireland goalkeeper
I think we probably stepped off the gas a little bit with half an eye on Tuesday against Germany, but it will give us a lot of confidence going into that game.

We knew coming into this qualifying campaign that it could have been over by Christmas, so we've given ourselves a great chance of qualifying. If we can go to Germany and get a result, it would be brilliant.

Martin O'Neill, Ireland manager
[I'm] delighted, we got off to a great start and Robbie [Keane] scored a hat-trick by the time we reached the 18th minute and effectively the game was won then. But [I'm] disappointed with our last 20 minutes – we became sloppy at both ends of the field and could have conceded a goal from a corner and then we cleared one off the line.

The period just after half-time was just terrific, we got a lot of momentum. But at that point came thoughts perhaps of another game ahead.

Allen Bula, Gibraltar coach
It's been a pretty tough evening because of the result. We are disappointed with the result but we have to take the positives. We made mistakes, we're learning – but to be down 5-0, 6-0 and then really start pushing harder, and my players started to make Ireland defend, is a positive I can take forward. 

I think we said from day one that we're not going to park the bus and we actually show it in every single match because that's not the way we play. Obviously it's a learning curve for us and these are the first qualifiers for my players and perhaps just two of them have played in front of 30,000 or 40,000 spectators and today was another hurdle we had to overcome.

Roy Chipolina, Gibraltar defender
All I can say is it's a new level for us and we're learning with every match. We have got to be switched on the whole match and until we start doing that for 90 minutes the scoreline will be five, six, seven goals.

The experience is fantastic – I am 31 now and if this had come ten years ago I would be a much better player. This is for the youth of Gibraltar and hopefully in the future we will see a much better team. As it stands we only have one or two full-time professionals in the team. Hopefully, down the line, we will see the whole squad being full-time professionals.