Kieran Shannon: If Ireland continue to treat penalties as a lottery they'll never hit jackpot 

Hallgrimsson and his staff had formed a list of penalty-takers, “from one to 23” and were open to “tweaking one or two”, depending on circumstances.

Republic of Ireland players react during the penalty shoot-out. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

WE’RE the new England.

For decades our nearest and dearest considered penalty shootouts a lottery, something that came down to an individual’s temperament and technique rather than a collective activity or responsibility, and invariably a cruel – even unfair – way to decide a contest and end the journey of a group of players who had been so gallant and defiant and heroic in the preceding 120 minutes.