All-Ireland champions Dublin easily progressed to the semi-final with a comfortable 1-19 to 0-12 win over Monaghan at Croke Park on Saturday.
Jim Gavin's side were rarely threatened as they booked their place in what should be a hotly contested match with Tyrone for a place in the final.
Speaking to Off the Ball's Oisin Langan after the match, Monaghan manager Malachy O'Rourke felt his side's best chance of an unlikely victory was to try to contain Dublin early on.
"We felt coming down that we had watched Dublin against other teams and we felt that if we gave them too much space in our defence, that they would exploit it," he said, adding: "If they get a couple of goals early on the game is over.
"So we wanted to try and make sure that we were hard to breakdown and we felt, at the same time going forward that we would carry a threat as well.
Dublin's Eoghan O'Gara and Colin Walshe of Monaghan. Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
"In the first half I suppose we did, we had plenty of attacks. I think we were turned over 15 times, we had a few chances of scores we didn't take.
"The difference between 6-1 down or 7-1 down compared to 6-3, 6-4 is massive in a game like that. The longer the first half went on we just realised then that at seven or eight one, if we continued playing too defensively it was only going to lead to one result anyway.
"We had to push up a wee bit but look, we came down here to give a really good account of ourselves and try to win the game. Now, it doesn't look like that. We did honestly feel that if we did push up too much you're just inviting trouble and we didn't want to go that way...on reflection now, it didn't go the way we wanted either," he added.
The full interview can be heard here:
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
