Sporting purists usually complain that penalty shootouts are a terrible way to end a game, whatever the sport may be. Some even suggest play should continue indefinitely, until a goal is scored.

If that rule had applied in Helsinki yesterday there might well have been snow on the ground before the Irish team would have found a way of breaching the defence of the Czech Republic.

They had 85 minutes of normal and extra-time to do it, in a game they dominated, but failed to convert any of their 10 short corners or the innumerable chances they created from play.

In the end they paid a heavy price for their wastefulness, losing 2-1 on penalty strokes, after the game had ended scoreless, and the task that faces them now, if they are to qualify for next summer's European Nations' Cup Finals, is to win today's third-fourth place play-off by beating a Belarus side they only managed to draw with in Monday's pool match, thanks to a last-minute equaliser.

Ireland may play more attractive, attacking hockey under Riet Kuper but, in this tournament at least, she has so far failed to find a solution for the problem that has cursed the team for as long as most of us can remember: the inability to score goals.

Claire McMahon, Rachel Kohler, Jenny Burke, Sarah Kelleher and Kim Mills all had chances to give Ireland the lead yesterday, but spurned them all. They did, however, produce some delightful passages of play, with Kelleher and Mary Logue combining on several occasions to threaten a stubborn Czech defence.

The Czechs themselves failed to trouble Tara Browne in goal from play even once in the game, due largely to the outstanding work of Julie Stewart in defence, but it was they who came closest to breaking the deadlock nine minutes from time, when captain Jana Mrzenova sent a thunderous shot from a short corner crashing against Browne's right post.

Either side of that scare Browne twice denied the Czechs, diving low to her right to keep out short corner strikes from Mrzenova and Katerina Cervena. Five minutes from the end Ireland had their best chance of the game when Kelleher played McMahon through on the right of the circle but instead of opting to shoot, from an inviting angle, she cut the ball back across goal, behind Kelleher and Mills. Extra-time, when a golden goal would have decided the game, failed to separate the teams. After the first four penalty strokes, though, Ireland led 1-0, with Browne saving the Czechs' first two efforts. Logue hit the first stroke of the competition high over the bar, but Arlene Thompson slotted hers away with ease.

But then it all fell apart. Stewart and Mills both had their shots saved while the Czechs converted their third and fourth efforts. It was left to Kelleher to keep Ireland alive, but her shot was pushed on to the crossbar by goalkeeper Martina Horova. The Czechs face France, who beat Belarus 3-2 in extra-time, in today's final.