It's been official for 24 hours now but it doesn't get any less painful. Ireland are out of the Euros. I tried watching the game back from the beginning this morning. I watched the Brady penalty, and of the sight of fans celebrating that penalty, and tried to trick myself that the result would somehow be different. It wasn't to be. The grim reality is that, yes, Ireland are out of the Euros.
On today's RACKET we discussed in detail the emotional hangover that has gripped the nation since the final whistle in Lyon yesterday. But our big takeaway in association with Four Star Pizza is that over the last week, the bond between the Irish football team and the Irish football-loving public has been restored.
It's hard to identify the moment the relationship between the Irish football team and their fans frayed but an intimacy has been lacking over the years. Think of the Trap years and the horrors of Gdansk and Poznan. The Stan years weren't much better. The Kerr years happened amidst the Saipan hangover and feel impossible to properly gauge. You have to go back to the Charlton era for when Ireland teams were universally praised, even in defeat.
Other than one or two notable exceptions, Ireland's defeat yesterday has been met with an unsurpassed feeling of good will. There were no scapegoats. No villains. Ireland gave their all. It wasn't enough, but everything was stacked against them. The heart they showed in beating Italy and in holding off France for so long has restored hope in the next generation of Irish football.
They gave everything, pic.twitter.com/iSDjQEULv0
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) June 26, 2016
This process of restoration started after the Germany win, and continued through the playoffs against Bosnia. In today's Indo, Brian Kerr claimed that Martin O'Neill tapped into the soul of Irish football these past two weeks. We can all agree that the soul of Irish football is a beautiful thing. We think it can get us to Russia.
In other news, our Ladbrokes Bet of the Day is that Italy and Spain will be contested in penalties. Ladbrokes had offered those odds at 4/1. The teams drew in the group stages in 2012 and played to penalties in Euro 2008. Italy lead at halftime, but why not today?
