Ireland powerless in blitzkrieg

Ireland 1, Germany 4

But the Germans are the world champions, after all, and even a draw against them in this European Championship pool game was little more than fancy.

2-1 down at half time, Irish hopes of an upset were raised momentarily. Three short corners later, though, and the strength, technique and physicality of the Germans took its toll.

Clarke credited the Irish defence and goalie Wes Bateman in particular for allowing the side to dream for a short while. They had done wonders to keep the blitzkrieg at bay, but in the end they came up short against overwhelmingly powerful opposition.

After defeats to Germany and Spain, the Irish must win against Russia, France and Belgium if they are to entertain hopes of making the cross-over stages and possibly a tilt at a fifth/sixth place finish. The French come into view tomorrow.

Clarke, however, was not too disheartened by the defeat and conceded that the Irish began to tire in the closing stages and found it hard to cope with the movement of their opponents.

The movement reaped rewards after just eight minutes when Matthias Witthaus finished clinically inside the circle. But, just seven minutes later, Justin Sherriff made a typical lolloping run into German territory, beat two men and audaciously lobbed the keeper, but it was injury returnee Gordon Elliot who got the final touch to equalise.

Just before half time and after a string of excellent saves from Bateman, the valiant Irish defence, which had so manfully coped with German advances to that point, conceded a short corner and the giant playmaker and captain Florian Kunz scored with typical venom.

It took the Germans, who were obviously the more capable outfit, 15 minutes of the second half to break down Ireland's disciplined defence, with Christopher Zeller scoring from a short corner .

The fourth came five minutes from the end via another set piece as Bjoern Michel scored from a rebound.

"The scoreline was perhaps a little harsh," Clarke mused, "because they only got one open-field goal and three short corners and they were fantastic corners, as we expect from the Germans.

"The fact they had to pull stuff like that out helps us, but at the end of the day at least players get the opportunity to learn when they play against side with that quality.

"We went out to try and play against Germany, put pressure on them, see if they make mistakes and try and get a few scores. The French, for example, created very few chances against them, while we at least had a few chances and scored one," Clarke said.

"The difference, really, is staying in contention and some of it is confidence. If you get a goal, you get a lift for a while and we certainly were lifted when we scored. The more often you score, the longer you'll be in the game. The other thing is that the big sides start to doubt whenever they concede goals they get more concerned about what the opposition are doing so a second goal, which we did have the opportunity to score, would have helped."

Clarke says the Irish tactic in this tournament has been to try and reserve ammunition without declaring too much to future opponents and he hopes he has done that ahead of the French game.

"We are trying to manage the resources we have because there's not a lot of point in having great performances against Spain and Germany if you've no energy left to play France. Hopefully, we've done that. We'll be able to judge on Saturday," Clarke said.

IRELAND: Bateman, Black, Brown, Lutton, Elliot, Butler, Burns, Irwin, Jackson, Sherriff, Buttimer. Rolling subs: Smyth, Raphael, Hobbs, Barbour.

GERMANY: Arnold, Crone, Michel, Eimer, Emmerling, Green, Weissenborn, Kunz, Wess, Bechmann, Zeller. Rolling subs: Wein, Biederlack, Witthaus, Zeller.