Donegal will meet Cork in the All-Ireland football semi-final – after ending Kerry’s interest in the championship at Croke Park on Sunday.

They now join Cork, Dublin and Mayo in the last four with many believing this could be Donegal’s year to lift the Sam Maguire.

Jimmy McGuinness’s side were full value for their 1-12 to 1-10 win over the Kingdom while Cork were never in trouble as they beat Down by 2-19 to 0-12.

Forward Colm McFadden played a huge role for Donegal with a goal and five points and insisted afterwards that his team want to go all the way to September glory after beating Kerry.

After securing a return to the All-Ireland semis, McFadden said: “It’s fantastic to be back where we were last year again. There’s going to be big work done in the next three weeks to try and go one step further and get to an All-Ireland final.

“Cork next, is it? I didn’t even know who won. We’ll start preparing for them tomorrow morning, I suppose. I think it’s three weeks away. It’s going to be another big challenge for us.”

McFadden’s early goal had an element of luck about it as his kick from distance eluded the Kerry defence.

He admitted; “The goal now was a fortunate one. I just wanted to put into the back post to Michael Murphy and just fortunately he went to compete for it and it went straight into the net.

“It doesn’t matter whose goal it is, as long as it went it. It was a great lift that early in the game.”