Wes Hoolahan: You just want to run around and do everything you can to get a result

Wes Hoolahan has been there before. Scoot back almost a dozen years and the Dubliner was an integral part of a superb Shelbourne side at the fag end of, what was at the time, the greatest European odyssey any Irish club had known.

Greats days and nights against KR Reykavik, Hajduk Split and Deportivo La Coruna had already been banked, the two-leg defeat to the Spaniards finally ending their Champions League aspirations and rerouting them into the Uefa Cup.

Lille would provide the full stop.

Two late, late Glen Fitzpatrick goals had salvaged a 2-2 draw at Lansdowne Road, but Shelbourne were completely outplayed at the old Stade Metropole two weeks later as they lost 2-0 and managed just the one shot on target.

That was Hoolahan’s last ever European game for Shels. Livingston invited him to Scotland less than a year later at the late age of 23 and provided another step up a ladder that would include rungs at Blackpool, Norwich and, finally, Ireland.

It’s been a fine career. No-one questions his status as the Republic’s most active player, but his slight frame and ability to compete physically in the professional game has meant he has never allayed everybody’s doubts.

Electric at times against Sweden in the Republic’s Euro 2016 opener in Paris, his was one of the performances that dipped appreciably against the Belgians, and there is talk he may be one of a handful of players to be dropped tomorrow.

It would be a swift decline in fortune even if he will surely see action at some point against a stingy Italian defence. The question is whether Ireland have the quality required to break them down, with or without the 34-year old Norwich City wizard.

“We’ve got a lot of quality players here,” Hoolahan said. “You look at the chances we created, the amount of shots on target we had, and we were unlucky not to win that game.

“Against the Belgians it was a different kettle of fish, they were a lot better than us on the day and they hit us on the counter-attack. Hopefully we have enough players in the dressing-room to get us out of the pool.”

The loss to Belgium has altered the mood and squeezed the squad’s chances of progressing, although the players have spoken repeatedly of the need to rinse that sour taste from their mouths and recalibrate for the Azzuri.

Sunday helped.

Hoolahan and a few others took the opportunity to hit Paris for a coffee, some shopping and a stroll around the Champs Elysees and tip up the Eiffel Tower. With the green army moved on, they were able to wander around in peace and quiet.

Killing time is a key component in any major championship and the nightly run of last round games from the other groups has at least offered the players something genuinely diverting given the knock-on effect results will potentially have.

Albania were cheered to the rafters on Sunday night and England had unlikely supporters in the form of the 23 players, management and staff stationed at the Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles as they faced Slovakia last night.

Ultimately, none of those fixtures will matter if Ireland can’t shake off Bordeaux and do the business in Lille. Hoolahan, for one, is adamant that they can and takes succour from the likes of the side’s unlikely 1-0 defeat of Germany in Dublin late last year.

Among other results.

“Belgium are very good, one of the best teams in the world, and we just need to get over it because we have a massive game against the Italians. We got beaten by Poland out in Poznan and then we went and beat Bosnia to qualify for here.

“We have had a few setbacks and the next few games we have gone and won or got the result we needed, so we have a good bunch of lads here who are positive. And we are looking forward to the Italian game.”

Belgium’s display on the back of a week of apparent disharmony may have revealed the foolishness of hoping for help from exalted opponents, but all the indications are that Antonio Conte is contemplating a day off for quite a number of his first XI.

The cards picked up by five of his key men so far, their confirmation as group winners and potential fatigue further into the tournament are all factors in that as both sides prepare for battle on the ragged pitch at Lille’s Stade Pierre-Mauroy.

The forecast for Lille is for rain, as was the case when Shelbourne were washed out of another European competition back in 2004, though it remains to be seen if the northern French city witnesses the last of Hoolahan on the international stage as well.

Should Ireland fail to claim the three points needed and instead exit the Euros, the focus will turn towards the World Cup qualifiers next September and whether veterans including Hoolahan, Shay Given, Robbie Keane and John O’Shea will still be involved.

Hoolahan isn’t showing that hand just yet.

“Every time you put on the green shirt it gives you a great buzz and a great energy,” Hoolahan said. “When the national anthem is playing you just want to run around and do everything you can to get a result. That’s still the same.”