Anticipation for Ireland's Euros opener tempered with no little trepidation

Well, yes, and here we go again. This might be a different Ireland, with a different manager and a number of different faces as first choice players but, as the first day of our Euro 2016 finally dawns, it’s hard to ignore the superficial similarities with four years ago in Poland.

As then, Ireland face the team deemed to be our most manageable opponents in the first game, the group favourites in the second and then our old friends Italy in the final match.

But it would be a mistake to read a whole lot more into the symmetry than that.