Henry Shefflin hailed his Galway players after they bounced back from their Leinster final heartache to book an All-Ireland semi-final spot.
Having been beaten by a sucker-punch Cillian Buckley goal for Kilkenny in the depths of injury time 13 days earlier, Galway responded impressively with a win over Tipperary that was more comfortable than the final two-point margin might have suggested.
Tribe boss Shefflin said: “Just after the last day when that moment happened and that evening, you're wondering what's going to happen in two weeks' time. I think they responded very well.
“Obviously, look, I will have to watch back the game, but I think there was an opportunity there for us to walk off the field with three or four [goals].
“We were the better team for a lot of the passages of the game. More than anything else, I'm just very proud. It was such a kick after the Leinster final. The 30 seconds before the goal was very difficult. You wonder what's going to happen.
“All the panel players that didn't play in the Leinster final played Clare last Friday night down in Ennis and I kind of knew coming out of there, I said, 'Do you know what, they've responded very well'.
“The group, the panel, what we've been trying to build over the last 18 months. We responded excellently down there.”
Galway now face a last four clash with Limerick on July 8 having gone toe-to-toe with the defending champions at the same stage last year.
“Whoever won tonight was going to be massive underdogs heading into that,” Shefflin admitted. “Limerick are just a phenomenal team for a long period of time now.
“For this evening, we're happy enough that we get there. We get the chance. We'll just have to see if we can make some improvements, get some confidence from tonight and improve things a little bit and go at the challenge because it is a massive challenge. At least we're there.”
