So it turns out the second best team in the world are actually pretty good at football.
The Republic of Ireland head to Lille on Wednesday needing to beat Italy to escape from Group E following a chastening 3-0 defeat to Belgium here in Bordeaux.
Martin O’Neill’s men were completely outclassed by their opponents, who dominated from the first whistle before scoring all three goals in the second half.
Sometimes you just have to hold your hand up and say you were beaten by the better team – which Martin O’Neill did afterwards – but we have focussed on five areas where the game was lost.
It’s a Long way to Tipperary
Granted, the heavy-handed Thomas Vermaelen and Toby Alderweireld made life particularly difficult for Shane Long – whose evening was made all the more difficult by the light touch refereeing of Cuneyt Cakir – but Ireland’s lone striker was desperately isolated throughout.
The change of system, with Wes Hoolahan effectively dropping into a five-man midfield to try and stymie the Belgians, simply did not work. Not only did man of the match Axel Witsel and Moussa Dembele operate with impunity in the middle of the park, but the sacrifice of Hoolahan left Long all alone against the Belgian back four.
Robbie Brady and Jeff Hendrick, along with Hoolahan, did their best to get forward and support the Southampton man but Ireland so rarely had the ball that it became normal to see Long stood on his own, 30 or more yards from his nearest team-mate.
When the ball did come in his direction it was usually launched with the subtlety of a Hellfire missile and Long, a strong forward man, was left battling the gruesome twosome of Alderweireld and Vermaelen.
There were a couple of instances in the first half when Long was given a chance to use his pace to meet balls over the top but most of the time he was just a punching bag for the Belgian centre-halves.
Midfield maestros versus midfield muckers
Long, to put it bluntly, was not well served by his central midfielders. If Hendrick, Brady and Hoolahan were showing endeavour on the rare occasions they had the ball, James McCarthy and Glenn Whelan were depressingly unambitious with their distribution.
The pairing both managed to find a team-mate with at least 80 percent of their passes, which is remarkable given the number of occasions they blindly humped the ball vaguely in the direction of the Belgium goal.
Perhaps these numbers owe a lot to the pedestrian, safe sideways passing both engaged in throughout. Passing the ball and the buck to a team-mate who, normally, was in no better a position.
While Ireland were humping or shifting, Dembele and Witsel were constantly feeding Kevin de Bruyne with quality ball and the magical Manchester City man was making hay.
Nowhere on the field did Ireland look as outclassed as in midfield.
Where are the game changers?
You’re 3-0 down to one of the world’s best teams with 20 minutes to go and you replace your most creative player with a winger who was not wanted by Sheffield Wednesday for their biggest game in nearly 20 years.
Introducing Aiden McGeady for Hoolahan was never going to strike fear into the Belgians and, while you cannot fault O’Neill too much for his substitutions on Saturday you can ask the question why he brought a squad with so little variety.
Robbie Keane for Long was a mad move too when you consider the afternoon big burly Long had had. Would Daryl Murphy have been a better call? Despite the lack of a goal in 20 caps. Would David McGoldrick or even Callum O’Dowda (who was watching the match in the Paris fanzone) have given the Belgians something to think about?
https://twitter.com/CallumODowda/status/744170184076853248
I guess we’ll never know, but we do know that an ageing Keane, horribly out of form McGeady and James McClean are not the calibre of player needed to change a game at this level.
Problem is we’re not sure they exist right now in Irish football.
More Clark, less Superman
It is unfortunate to have to single out an individual but, after turning the ball into his own Paris, Ciaran Clark was once more directly responsible for a goal.
Kamikaze Clark. Kamikaze.
Lukaku
3-0
Bon nuit#IRLBEL
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 18, 2016
After James McClean was dispossessed near the corner Eden Hazard raced up Ireland’s left flank. With geometry on his side, all Clark had to do was guide the Chelsea man towards the sideline. Instead, for some reason, he decided to launch himself, studs first at the Belgium captain, seemingly in an effort to split Hazard in two.
He missed, thankfully for Hazard’s sake, and the Belgian then had all the time in the world to square the ball to Romelu Lukaku for his second goal.
The game was already more than likely beyond Ireland but Clark’s rush of blood put the cap on things.
Indecisive, wasn’t it? Or was it?
In the first half Long made the perfect diagonal run between Belgium’s central defenders but Hendrick held on to the ball for three second too long. By the time he played it to the static striker he was easily dispossessed in the area.
Also in the first half, Hoolahan was the victim of a very heavy tackle on the edge of the area that was directly caused by his own uncharacteristically heavy touch.
Was the Norwich playmaker distracted as he tried to decide between shooting, running or passing? There was an apparent lack of clarity among the Irish players as to what should be done on the rare occasions Ireland had the ball.
This could have been partly down to a lack of confidence in a game where they spent a long time chasing shadows, but it compared badly to a Belgian side who knew exactly what to do (give it to De Bruyne and flood forward).
Ireland’s indecision cost them dearly on the few occasions they threatened the Belgian goal, which helps explains how they registered just two shots on target.
