Updated at 00.12
THIS EVENING, IRAN came desperately close to beating Portugal and topping their group.
Had more of the contentious decisions gone their way and had Mehdi Taremi not missed a gilt-edged opportunity in the dying seconds, they would have qualified at the expense of the reigning Euro 2016 champions.
Similarly, Morocco were agonisingly close to securing an improbable victory over one of the favourites to win the World Cup, Spain.
Iago Aspas’ last-gasp goal following the officials’ consultation with VAR spared Fernando Hierro’s side’s blushes.
While Portugal and Spain progressed as expected, it could easily have been so different had the underdogs received better fortune.
Group B was incredibly tight — there was little between the teams, and every game was either drawn or decided by a single goal.
Not many people would have expected that outcome pre-tournament. Spain, player-for-player, have arguably the best squad at the World Cup, while Portugal are the reigning Euro 2016 champions.
By contrast, the one individual you could call a big name in the Morocco team — Juventus’ Medhi Benatia — was dropped tonight. Their starting XI this evening consisted of players from clubs such as Numancia, İstanbul Başakşehir, Fenerbahçe, Yeni Malatyaspor, Wolves and Al-Jazira.
Yes, they have players from Real Madrid and Ajax too, but at 19, Achraf Hakimi has seen very little game time for the La Liga outfit, while Hakim Ziyech is arguably their outstanding attacking player.
Iran, meanwhile, have a squad that features several players from the Iranian and Greek leagues and no one representing a powerhouse of football (Rubin Kazan is probably as close as it gets).
One consistent excuse for Ireland’s inept performances at international level is that ‘we don’t have the players’. Even manager Martin O’Neill regularly points out this shortcoming.
Yet Iran and Morocco among others have proven at this World Cup that you can still be competitive on the big stage despite boasting a vastly inferior set of individual players to the opposition.
There are countless complex reasons for the sometimes disappointing performances of the Irish team, which have been delved into in far more detail in article such as this one.
But not having players who represent elite European clubs should not be used as a reason to accept maulings on the international stage.
Yes, it might mean you might have to play unattractive football at times — Iran and Morocco had 27% and 25% possession respectively tonight.
But while the Boys in Green will come up against better teams, it does not necessarily mean are destined to be uncompetitive in these games .
The right organisation, gameplan and tactics, in addition to a healthy level of self-belief, as opposed to constantly talking the players down, can take even technically limited sides far at international level.
Rather than thinking the infamous 5-1 loss to Denmark last November was unavoidable or simply as a result of having bad players, the Irish team need to learn from what went wrong that night tactically and also examine in detail what has gone right for the supposed weaker sides that have enjoyed some success in Russia.
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