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.

There may have been a touch of good fortune to a couple of the Croatian goals — and their timing was certainly cruel For Ireland — but no-one could seriously argue the scoreline didn’t accurately reflect Croatia’s superiority in ball retention, mobility and composure.

And in Luka Modric, they had the game’s dominant personality, a playmaker whose invention and imagination the Irish were never able to stifle, let alone try to emulate.

A number of Irish players, indeed, seemed to freeze on what was the biggest night of their careers. Or at least to find panic taking over when the going got tough — as it did repeatedly in the home of Lech Poznan. The Municipal Stadium here is famous as the birth of ‘The Poznan’, the celebration whereby Lech fans turn their backs on the field of play in an oddly striking display of reverse solidarity.

The choreography has now travelled the world of football, with Manchester City fans the most high profile practitioners.

Sadly, the only reason Irish fans would have had for following suit in the venue last night was as a means of blocking out the bad scenes on the pitch. But all the looking away couldn’t change their knowledge of how comprehensively bad a result this was for Ireland. Trapattoni’s team now need the minimum of a point against Spain in Gdansk on Thursday simply to keep their Euro hopes alive.

Such a result, difficult at the best of times, seems highly improbable on the basis of the way the Irish succumbed last night.

After Spain and Italy had drawn in Gdansk, the evening began full of promise for both Croatia and Ireland, one or other of the notional Group C outsiders now in with a shout of topping the table at the end of the first day of play. What some back home might have called a grand soft rain fell steadily during the build-up but nothing could dampen the enthusiasm in the stands. By kick-off, at least two-thirds of the stadium had been colonised by green, white and orange, some of the most proud and passionate fans in football determined to make up for their 10-year absence from the big stage. What the Croatians lacked in numbers, they made up for in volume. With the stadium’s steep stands and extended roofs creating a huge box shape, the effect was to amplify every song and chant and cheer and groan, making an electrifying atmosphere.

However, another airing of ‘You’ll never beat the Irish’ had barely subsided when the notion was put to an early and severe test. It might have taken Ireland 24 years to get back to Europe’s top table but it took only three minutes to have the chair pulled out from under them on their return. And, worse, it wasn’t as if they were undone by sheer class, Mario Mandzukic’s header beating the dive of Shay Given from a long way out.

Here, already, was a taste of that serenity Norman Mailer talked about when the worst thing that can happen, happens. And, for a while the shock even seemed to have a galvanising and liberating effect on the Irish, with Kevin Doyle putting in the hard yards as his side was obliged to go on the offensive.

And it was a foul on Doyle which helped get Ireland an equaliser in the 19th minutes. Almost inevitably, perhaps, it came from the resultant set-piece, Aiden McGeady’s free-kick delivery excellently headed home by Sean St Ledger who’d sneaked to the back post.

But, sadly, that was as good as it got for Ireland and their tremendously loyal support. Croatian pressure continued building and, just two minutes before the break, it was deflation once again for Trapattoni’s charges. Nikica Jelavic might have been offside when Luka Modric’s first effort came in, but it was a panicky attempt to clear by Stephen Ward which allowed the Everton striker a chance to dink the ball over Given to put the Croatians back in front.

Irish energy in the form of anger directed towards Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers by both Trapattoni and skipper Robbie Keane at half-time might have been better used to focus attention on the uphill task that now faced all concerned in the second half. Instead, the Irish again fell to an early sucker punch, Mario Mandzukic’s header hitting a post and then, as if to rub salt into the Donegal man’s wounds, rebounding off Given and back into the net..

Trapattoni sought to shake things up by sending Simon Cox and Jon Walters into the fray, for McGeady and Doyle respectively, and now playing 4-3-3 Ireland certainly offered more in the way of an attacking threat in the game’s final phase. But, by then, Croatia knew they’d done the hard work and, in the end, Slaven Bilic’s side fairly comfortably saw off Irish attempts to mount a late rally, with Keith Andrews going close a couple of times near the end.

Tournament football represents the ultimate hothouse test of Trapattoni’s conviction that it’s never about the show and always about the result. His credibility rises or falls in tandem with the accumulation of, or failure to add, points on the board. To that extent, the Italian clearly suffered one of the worst outings of his tenure as Irish manager in Poznan last night. If there is to be redemption, he will now need to perform something of a managerial miracle in the space of only a couple of days.

In the run-up to last night’s match, Keith Andrews had written in this newspaper that, whatever the result against Croatia, it was important that the players understood that nothing was ever going to be decided in the first game and that, in so far as it was possible, they had to see each 90 minutes in isolation from everything else going on in the group and the tournament as a whole. The team, he said, could afford to let themselves either get too up or too down on the back of the first result.

All of which makes sound theoretical sense. But that resolve will now be put to the test in a major way, as Ireland are obliged to try and bounce back from this crushing setback and, this coming Thursday in Gdansk, do nothing less than provide what would be one of the tournament’s biggest upsets when they face a Spain side which itself now badly needs three points to make up lost ground.

Again, the wonderful Irish support will travel in hope. But expectation will be in very short supply.

Subs for Republic of Ireland: Cox for McGeady (53), Long for Keane (71), Walters for Doyle (53).

Subs for Croatia: Dujmovic for Rakitic (91), Eduardo for Perisic (88), Kranjcar for Jelavic (70).

Referee: Bjorn Kuipers (Netherlands)