Despite Leinster's 20-13 Heineken Cup victory over Toulouse, coach Michael Cheika reckons his side need "a little bit of a miracle".
Irish province looking forward to Leicester showdown
Despite seeing his Leinster side score a 20-13 Heineken Cup victory over Toulouse, coach Michael Cheika reckons his side still need "a little bit of a miracle" to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Their cause was helped by Edinburgh's surprise win at home to Leicester, with the latter's Welford Road now being the venue where the Irish province's fate is decided.
Three-times winners Toulouse were undone by two tries from Ireland cap Luke Fitzgerald and 10 points from the boot of Argentinian star Felipe Contepomi.
Cheika said: "For qualification we are talking about a little bit of a miracle and by now everybody knows that. You have to believe and I think now is the time for us to start believing again."
He also admitted feeling proud at how his players went about carving out their victory.
"It's a really weird feeling because it's not that often you get the chance to beat a team like this when they come to your home town," Cheika continued.
"I thought we played quite well and you don't know whether to cheer or say, 'oh God what could have been?' if we had played like that all of the time.
"The best teams in Europe don't give away points easily and we got to the edge of an opportunity to score a couple of times.
"I was really proud of the players because when they made that decision to kick for the corner instead of going for goal (in the first half), they stuck with it. It didn't work for them on the first, second or third time. They stayed down there."
Having gone 17-6 behind after winger Fitzgerald's second try, Toulouse rallied with replacement Yves Donguy crossing the whitewash in the 70th-minute to effectively secure the losing bonus point.
Cheika added: "Having watched their game against Castres last week we can understand that Toulouse really put on a surge, particularly if they feel they are not performing and being smothered out of it. I think in the first half they came out in a big way but they really got on top of us in the second half."
Despite their loss, Toulouse still sit top of Pool Six, three points clear of Leinster going into the final round of matches.
Toulouse coach
Guy Noves admitted: "It was important to win the match firstly and the (losing) bonus point was secondary to that.
"We need to get the bonus point against Edinburgh next weekend. My main objective was obviously to win the game but Leinster played very well in the first half and because of their early work they deserved to win the game.
"I would just like to congratulate them because they played very well and it was a magnificent win for them."
