Wesley Sneijder has sent the Netherlands’ angry and shell-shocked supporters a heartfelt apology for the way his team have performed so far at Euro 2012, indicating just how low the World Cup finalists have sunk in the space of two years.

Mario Gomez has long since been one of the world’s best strikers and not just because he has scored three goals so far at Euro 2012, according to his team-mate Bastian Schweinsteiger.

“He’s got a talent as good as anyone in the game. He’s confident, intelligent and he’s certainly got the technical skills. He has a great belief in himself.”

Daniel Levy has been responsible for many things in 10 years as Tottenham’s chairman, but he probably never expected to have inverted Karl Marx’s famous phrase about history repeating itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll has promised a more passionate and aggressive performance from his team this weekend.

Ireland have been here before, unfortunately with unnerving regularity.

Rory McIlroy will have Michael Bannon as his full time coach after the Bangor professional announced he would leave his club job to hit the road with the reigning US Open champion.

Sailing has used the successes of Ireland’s amateur boxers as the template to raise standards within the sport.

IRISH rugby international Mick Galwey retired from the game in 2003, but tonight he lines out for the celebrity tag rugby match, which is part of the Play Tag Festival taking place in Carlow today and tomorrow.

He is 25 now.

A QUESTION: has an Irish team ever gone into a game as bigger outsiders than the one Giovanni Trapattoni will send into action against Spain here in Gdansk tonight?

Central defence in the air

David Silva killed the ball exquisitely, looked up, saw his man and found him with a pass.

IT IS eighteen months now since Andy Gray and Richard Keys wandered into a debate about the respective merits of the English Premier League and La Liga during a league match between Manchester City and Everton.

When Holland’s divided and reportedly dysfunctional team lost to Denmark at Euro 2012 a tabloid newspaper back home in the Netherlands ran a headline that read ‘Legoland beat Egoland’; so goodness knows what kind of abuse is heading Bert van Marwijk’s way today after his team lost 2-1 to Germany to stand on the brink of elimination.

Russia will spend the next three-and-a-half years playing under the threat of a six-point deduction for their 2016 European Championship qualify campaign after UEFA last night got tough over the behaviour of their fans.

Every single member of the Swedish team is adept at switching from their native tongue into English at the drop of the hat, but they certainly don’t seem to be speaking the same language as each other at present.

New Zealand fly-half Dan Carter is expecting a “ferocious” response from Ireland on Saturday after the tourists were comprehensively beaten in the first Test.Carter was in majestic form in the 42-10 win in Auckland last weekend and slotted seven from eight kicks, including two successful efforts from the halfway line.

Never before have we seen such hysteria at the beginning of a sporting competition as we did recently at the Euros.

Two days had passed since Ireland’s defeat to Croatia by the time Shay Given spoke to the media, and two more had yet to go before the second Group C game against Spain, but the goalkeeper’s gaze is fixed in just one direction.