End game proves painful for Ireland and Trapattoni

Austria 1 Republic of Ireland 0

The end of the World Cup dream and the end of Giovanni Trapattoni’s time as Ireland manager. All that’s left now is for the FAI to activate the process of replacing the veteran Italian. The action moves from the pitch to the boardroom, even though there are still two World Cup qualifiers to play. And now a nation turns its lonely eyes to Martin O’Neill.

Just for the record, and not to offend the pedants, yes, there is still a way Ireland could end up in second place in Group C but it would involve such a wild overturning of the natural laws of football, that the whole thing might as well belong to the realms of quantum physics.