Battered Ireland left needing a miracle

It was the night Ireland’s Euro 2012 dream turned into a nightmare.

And as the shell-shocked players wake up this morning, it’s only to the even harsher reality that world and European champions Spain now lie in wait.

Yesterday’s earlier 1-1 draw between the Spanish and the Italians in Gdansk at least had the effect of statistically softening the damage done by this morale-sapping loss to Croatia. But what it couldn’t do was apply any kind of positive gloss to a performance which, for all the hard work and spirited endeavour that we’ve come to expect of these players, saw Ireland made to look second-best for long stretches of this game.