End of pain, end of an era

And so it ends, not with a bang, but not exactly with a whimper either.

Indeed, Ireland could hardly have been involved in a more dramatic final couple of minutes to their Euro 2012 campaign.

Pressing for the goal and the point which would have given them something tangible on the table to take away from an otherwise forgettable experience, their fragile world collapsed again with, first, Keith Andrews being harshly booked for dissent — a second yellow card offence which sent him raging to the line — and then, right on the stroke of full-time, Mario Balotelli grabbing an acrobatic goal to double Italy’s advantage.

The Italian players then had to wait a few moments on the pitch before confirmation came through that, with Spain’s 1-0 victory over Croatia in Gdansk, the Azzurri were through to the quarter-finals. Gianluigi Buffon and his mates were finally able to erupt into celebration in one half of the pitch while, in the other, the exhausted Irish players were beginning their slow lap of honour to the mournful strains of, inevitably, ‘The Fields Of Athenry’. And it had the look, to be honest, more of era’s end than tournament’s end for some of them.

On the night that Damien Duff captained the side and claimed his 100th cap, this was by some distance the most spirited and disciplined Irish performance of these Euro Finals. Yet, even this improved display still wasn’t enough to prevent Trapattoni’s men – with three defeats on the spin and nine goals conceded — equalling the record for worst-ever performance by a team at the Euro finals.

The terminal damage, as he we have been saying all week, was really done in that first game against Croatia. And despite all the talk from the camp since the Spanish inquisition about credibility and reputation and redemption and showing Europe that they didn’t deserve to be the whipping boys of Euro 2012, it was hard to imagine that these Irish players could find a more meaningful incentive in pride than in the qualifying points which had been on offer against Croatia and Spain. And hard to think too that, on the back of those limp performances in the first two games, Ireland would suddenly find it within themselves to put it up to a team which had managed to claim a point in their games against two sides which, together, had put seven goals past Trapattoni’s team.

While, from the very moment of the draw in Kiev last December, it was on the cards that Ireland would not escape Group C, no-one could have foreseen that they would go into the last game with damage-limitation of an extensive kind in mind. But, after Croatia and Spain, nor did it seem likely that Trapattoni would finish this brief campaign by putting the same 11 onto the pitch which began the first game. The manager had said beforehand that these players, the ones who had helped Ireland qualify, deserved respect. That’s certainly true, yet it still said much about the depressing nature of the past eight days that, with one game to play in Euro 2012, he was still honouring the players for what they had achieved in qualifying.

Added to everything else, yesterday was by far the hottest of our time in Poland, the temperature still touching 30 degrees at kick-off time in Poznan’s Municipal Stadium. The stuffy, airless conditions inside the ground meant the Irish were already gulping back water during the warm-up.

Yet the first-choice 11 gave a decent account of themselves in the opening 30 minutes last night. After Ireland had conceded early on in both their previous outings, this time it was Italian nerves in evidence right at the start, as Kevin Doyle took advantage of some sloppiness to launch a one-man attack on Buffon’s goal. Unfortunately, the Wexford man couldn’t get his strike away but his commitment set the tone for an Irish display which even saw Aiden McGeady offer a proper attacking threat for the first time in the tournament.

The Italians were, as we expected, generally much more composed and clinical on the ball but against disciplined Irish defending and constant pressing around the pitch by the white shirts, the Azzurri grew frustrated.

But then came a couple of moments to forget for Shay Given, culminating in the opening goal for Italy. The keeper had already been left exposed far from home by Antonio Di Natale and had to be grateful to Sean St Ledger for covering his back, but when he failed to deal with a routine Antonio Cassano effort, spooning the ball just past the outside of his right post, there was a heavy price to pay. This time there was no second reprieve for the Donegal man, as Cassano struck with a near-post header from the corner to give the Azzurri a half-time lead.

The Irish survived a spell of renewed Italian pressure at the start of the second half and then, with the likes of Richard Dunne, Kevin Doyle and Keith Andrews to the fore, began taking the game to the opposition again. Damien Duff was doing his trademark shuffle – the Duffle, anyone? – and winning frees in promising positions, and when fresh legs in the form of Shane Long and Jonathan Walters arrived to help the cause, the Italians began to look decidedly nervous.

In the 78th minute Andrews almost recreated his free-kick goal against the blue shirts in Liege last summer but no Irish player reacted quickly enough to Buffon’s parry. But then, ten minutes later, Andrews received a second yellow he scarcely deserved and, just two minutes after that, a moment of improvised brilliance from Balotelli rubbed salt into Irish wounds.

Eighteen years on from Ray Houghton’s goal in New Jersey, Ireland were unable to stand on the shoulders of Giants. And so they leave Poland with precious little other than spirited endeavour and the unswerving loyalty of their fans.

Here, definitively, was a case of it having been better to travel hopefully than to arrive.

ITALY: Buffon, Abate, Barzagli, Chiellini (Bonucci 55), Balzaretti, Pirlo, Marchision, Thiego Motta, De Rossi, Di Natale (Balotelli 73), Cassano (Diamanti 61)

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given, O’ Shea, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward, McGeady (Long 65), Whelan, Andrews, Duff, Keane (Cox 85), Doyle (Walters 75)

Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey).