We gave the ball away too cheaply, moans O’Neill as Italian job awaits
Manager believes penalty appeal was wrongly denied He promises to go on the attack against Conte’s men
There was no disgrace in the Republic of Ireland losing to Belgium, just the resentful sense of deflation that comes when you have been outclassed and your limitations have been exposed.
Ireland were always going to be underdogs in Group E, but this was the moment they remembered that, no matter how brave and plucky they might be, underdogs normally lose.
Sometimes it does not matter how prepared you think you are to deal with brutal truths, they still hurt. They still provoke a negative reaction and there will be criticism of the way Ireland approached this game, as well as the poor standard of their passing.
The truth is, though, Ireland could not really approach it any other way. They had to concentrate on containing Belgium because they would have been shredded if they had tried to play a more attacking game.
No matter how hard you steel yourself for disappointment, it still stings.
Ireland must now get their heads round the fact that they are probably going home next week.
There is much to ponder, much to worry about. This is what Ireland supporters feared when the draw was made. Belgium are the highest-ranked team in the tournament. Italy are one of the most consistent tournament nations.
As soon as they failed to beat Sweden in their first game, realistically, for all the talk that three draws might be enough to progress, Ireland knew they would have to beat one of the above to reach the knockout stage. There are not many taller tasks for a country of Ireland’s size.
Martin O’Neill was asked immediately after this chastising defeat whether this was just what happens when a Belgium team full of players from the biggest clubs in Europe plays against an Ireland side filled with those from Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich City and Derby County.
That did not please him. O’Neill has never regarded defeat as inevitable, no matter how high the odds are stacked against him, but the gulf in class was clear. Belgium brushed Ireland aside with a degree of ease that suggests O’Neill’s side simply do not have the quality required to trouble an elite international team.
Yet, this is an Ireland team that took four points off Germany in qualification. They must still try to believe.
“That cannot be my attitude and it shouldn’t be the players attitude, either,” replied O’Neill. “We accept the fact that individually Belgium are as talented a team as there is in this competition, but the goals we gave away were not great from our point of view.
“My disappointment is that we played exceptionally well with the ball against Sweden, which is the most important thing. We looked nervous today, we gave the ball away cheaply and it came back too quickly.”
Ireland were set up to stifle and frustrate, which they did until Kevin De Bruyne skipped clear of James McCarthy and teed up Romelu Lukaku to score at the start of the second half. It was a perfectly executed move, but Ireland’s frustration came from the fact that they probably should have had a penalty seconds earlier.
Shane Long had been fighting valiantly all afternoon on his own against two Belgium centre-backs and had very little protection from referee Cuneyt Cakir. But when Toby Alderweireld, foot raised well above a safe level, caught him on the side of the head with his studs inside the area, a foul should have been given. The old adage about it being a free-kick anywhere else on the pitch rang true.
Instead of placing the ball on the penalty spot, however, Ireland had to place it on the halfway line and chase the game. Belgium picked them off almost at will after that.
“It’s been mentioned to me and the players are pretty adamant about it,” said O’Neill. “They thought it was a penalty, so that is doubly disappointing if they have broken against us and scored straight after it wasn’t given.
“Naturally it would have changed the course of the game if we had been given a penalty and scored, but we have been beaten by the better team.”
After such an encouraging performance against Sweden, this was a severe reality check, yet O’Neill will not let his players wallow. Italy are already guaranteed to top the group and they will rest players in Lille on Wednesday night, possibly all five of the players on yellow cards.
Ireland will be far more positive: they have to attack, and they will. Whether they have the creativity and ability in front of goal to open up a typically miserly Italian defence is doubtful, but they will not go out through a lack of effort.
“We have a game to win, and we have to throw absolutely everything into it to try and win,” said O’Neill. “I think there are two ways of looking at it, you can start to feel sorry for yourself and commiserate with your teammate about the position we are in, or you can take some confidence from the way you played three or four days ago and take that into the game.
“We have to try and put it aside, it’s never easy for a manager to do that after a defeat. You can’t do that straightaway, I’ll reappraise it and then I’ll push it to the side and try to win a game. That’s maybe not as difficult as it looks from here at the moment.
“We felt we could do something in this particular game but it didn’t materialise for us, now we have to move on. We had a few spells in the game, there were some good individual performances, and we can take some positives. We have to be positive, that is the most important thing.”