Gavin Cooney reports from the Fortuna Arena, Prague

Czechia 2

Republic of Ireland 2

Czechia win 4-3 on penalties 

ANOTHER IRISH PLAY-OFF defeat and one made all the worse by Ireland’s complicity in their own heartbreak. They took a two-goal lead tonight in Prague but then allowed it crumble away, dragged to extra time by a late equaliser and then beaten on penalties. 

Ireland have had World Cup dreams snatched shockingly from them in the past, but this felt all the worse for its being a slow, slow slipping away. The deflating of dreams may be worse than their abrupt bursting.

At the end of it all, the stunned Irish players stood bereft in front of their supporters, standing like alabaster white statues, serenaded and consoled by the supporters with whom they had so riotously reconnected during this campaign.

This will all be of cold comfort to the players tonight: tonight they fumbled a golden opportunity for which they will take a long time to forgive themselves. 

The ambition was to maintain the momentum of Budapest, and Hallgrimsson thus kept his tinkering to a minimum, replacing the suspended Liam Scales with Ryan Manning and the injured Josh Cullen with Jack Taylor. Ireland instantly exhibited the confidence inherited from November because, trust me, it takes a self-assurance to the point of pig ignorance to waltz into someone’s home and be this much of a pain. Ireland’s start to the game was the equivalent of popping into use someone’s loo only to leave without flushing. Having left the seat up. And the door open.

The Irish players won cheap free-kicks and got away without conceding as many, protesting and chivvying and contesting all the while killing any bit of time they could find. This was Kafkaesque football. 

Glaciers melted during the time Ireland took over restarts and set-pieces, which agitated the Czech coach and aggravated the crowd.

But after their years of timidity and defeat, this is an Ireland team who have grown to become comfortable with the rugged face looking back at them in the mirror. And when you see its effectiveness, who can blame them? The Czechs couldn’t deal with Jake O’Brien’s long throws: they half-cleared the first only for Molumby to steer it back in the direction of Troy Parrott, who showed sinew and skill to back into a defender and deftly lay the ball off to Nathan Collins, whose volley fizzed onto the crossbar via a deflection.

A few minutes later, O’Brien chucked another bomb into the box from the opposite side, and amid the fallout, Collins fell to the ground having been mildly kicked by Vladimir Darida. Play swept on until Pavel Sulc volleyed the ball at Caoimhin Kelleher, giving pause for the VAR to send the referee to the pitchside monitor. This was one set piece over which Ireland didn’t want to dally, but Parrott was forced to wait an age over the spot kick. Not that it mattered, of course, as he slammed the ball beyond Matej Kovar’s despairing grasp. 

Four minutes later, Ireland were enveloped in all manner of ecstasy. Finn Azaz won a corner which Manning swung to the back post, with Dara O’Shea steering the ball back into a zone of Czech calamity: Vladimir Coufal swiped awkwardly at the ball and sent the ball cannoning first off the post and then off goalkeeper Kovar and into the net. 

Dara O'Shea celebrates Ireland's second goal. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

But amid their delirium, Ireland lapsed back into baffling generosity. Within a couple of minutes of their second goal, Manning needlessly tugged the shirt of Ladislav Krecji as the ball was trundling harmlessly behind for a goal kick, with the referee pointing instantly to the spot. Patrik Schick deceived Kelleher to snatch the Czechs’ lifeline. Ireland effectively defibrillated their opponents. 

Tomas Soucek, stripped of the captaincy by the FA last year and bizarrely benched by Miroslav Koubek tonight, was summoned from the bench at the break. Ireland continued to wreak havoc from the second phase of their own set pieces, however, with Molumby looping a volley onto the post. Ireland fell under their first sustained spell of pressure around the hour mark, struggling to hold any kind of possession but standing up admirably to the Czechs’ physical threat in the box. 

Hallgrimsson freshened things up: off went his two players on yellow cards – Manning and Taylor – and on came Alan Browne and Robbie Brady. It didn’t change the game’s state: the Czechs continued to control the ball and the territory as Ireland continually gave it away, but they toiled in attack all the while, leaving us all to wonder whether we were in fear of the Czechs or merely of fear itself. 

Ogbene was Ireland’s best means of getting up the pitch, and another of his sally forths provoked a throw-in midway into the Czech half: sound the clarion call for O’Brien, whose latest hurl was flicked by O’Shea and nodded goalward by Parrott, denied by a flying Kovar save. 

But Ireland ultimately spent too long tempting fate. With five minutes remaining, Browne was harshly penalised for a foul by the corner flag, and just as Dominik Szoboszlai did at the start of the campaign, substitute Michal Sadilek whipped a delicious cross to the near post where Krecji rose above Parrott and O’Shea to bundle the ball beyond Kelleher. The Irish fans corralled into the corner of the stand fell silent for the first time. 

Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

The whistle blew shortly after, condemning Ireland to an extra-time period for which they may have steeled themselves before the game but would have found absurd midway through the first half.

Hallgrimsson’s message may have been: you’ve won it once, now go and win it again. But Ireland struggled to rediscover the momentum they had rolled from November to March and then slowly ceded from a position of strength. 

The first real chance of extra-time fell to Soucek, who spooned over in the box after a sloppy giveaway by Brady. Adam Idah replaced Ogbene and he threatened to streak clear on the counter, only to be foiled by a superb last-ditch tackle by the covering Czech defender. 

With the game seemingly wheezing to penalties, Hallgrimsson decided to gamble with five minutes remaining, removing the outstanding Molumby for Sammie Szmodics, dropping Finn Azaz to the base of midfield: in other words, the same switch as sparked the comeback against Hungary. 

Szmodics’ night hardly lasted two minutes, taking a brutal hit to the chest from a Czech player. Hallgrimsson was the first to tend to Szmodics, before he was stretchered away, replaced by debutant Harvey Vale. Sometimes fortune does not favour the brave. 

And so Irish dreams hung precariously on penalties. 

Parrott was up first and stood to listen to a wall of boos before sending the goalkeeper the wrong way. Kelleher despairingly got a hand to Krejci’s first for Czechia but saw it go past him. Adam Idah was the next Irishman to slough off the jeers to bury his penalty, only for Soucek to respond. Robbie Brady kept his nerve for Ireland and the Czechs blinked first: Chytil’s skewing his kick much too close to Kelleher, who held it tight to his chest. 

Alas, Ireland once again lost momentum: Azaz was next up but Kovar guessed right and jumped left. Schick levelled things again by sending Kelleher the wrong way, and then Ireland reckoned with disaster as Alan Browne saw his spot-kick batted away by the Czech goalkeeper. 

Thus Ireland needed one final miracle from Kelleher, but it wasn’t to be. Jan Kliment slammed his penalty beyond Kelleher, who lay prone on the turf as the ball whistled past him, the first to soak in the awful reality that Ireland’s dreams are dead. 

CZECHIA: Matej Kovar; Vladimir Coufal (Michal Sadilek, 83′); Tomas Holes (Stepan Chaloupeck, HT), Ladislav Krejci, Robin Hranac; David Jurasek; Vladimir Darida (Tomas Soucek, HT), Lukas Provod (Adam Karabec, 83′); Pavel Sulc (Jan Kliment, 103′); Tomas Chory (Mojmir Chytil, 73′), Patrik Schick

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Caoimhín Kelleher; Seamus Coleman (Jimmy Dunne, 96′), Jake O’Brien, Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea, Ryan Manning (Robbie Brady, 67′); Jayson Molumby (Sammis Szmodics, 115′, Harvey Vale, 120′), Jack Taylor (Alan Browne, 67′); Cheidozie Ogbene (Adam Idah, 96′), Finn Azaz; Troy Parrott

Referee: Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)