After two hours of chaotic action the World Cup playoff came down to an elemental clash of opposites. The unstoppable force: Czech Republic at penalties. 20 shoot-out penalties scored out of 20. The best record in the world. Immovable object: Caoimhín Kelleher. Eight out of 18 non shoot-out penalties saved in his senior career.
Ireland went first, which gives you a slight advantage. Parrott checks his run, and scores sending Kovar the wrong way.
Krejci goes left. Kelleher got a hand to it on the way in.
Adam Idah next. Hammers it in to the right, beating the dive of Kovar.
Liverpool want fans to keep singing as they lose 4-0, then say nothing as they charge more
Sticky-fingered Bosnian ball boy hailed a hero after shoot-out win over Italy
Manchester City cruise past Chelsea to increase pressure on Arsenal in title race
Irish player tracker: Troy Parrott helps AZ to vital win over Heerenveen
Soucek. Sends Kelleher the wrong way.
'It's really hard to take': Ireland's penalty heartbreak after early dominance
Brady. Places the ball carefully. Short run up. Sends Kovar the wrong way.
Chytil. Goes low and right. Kelleher guesses right. A historic moment. The first goalkeeper ever to save from a Czech in a shoot-out.
Azaz. He goes to the right. “Good height for the keeper”. Kovar saves.
Schick. Rolls it in arrogantly with Kelleher going the wrong way. Now the Czechs believe.
Ireland’s final taker is Alan Browne. He saw his penalty saved in the Slovakia playoff six years ago. This is a shot at redemption. Instead, he completes the Czechoslovak set.
There never seems any doubt about Jan Kliment. It is written.
The 100 per cent Czech record from the spot is gone but the 100 per cent record of successful shoot-outs continues.
Ireland’s players were still on the pitch long after the victorious Czechs had departed, standing and sadly applauding the fans who had travelled in huge numbers to chase this dream.
People will say maybe we should have practised penalties, but Ireland let their grip on this game slip in the first half by giving one away.
By that stage, they had raced into a scarcely believable 2-0 lead thanks to a penalty of their own and an own-goal.
The 2-0 goal had come from the same kind of move that brought Parrott’s first against Portugal. Ryan Manning’s deep corner beyond the far post was headed back in by Dara O’Shea and the off-balance Vladimir Coufal knocked the ball against his own crossbar and post. It bounced across the line off the back of Kovar and Ireland were 2-0 up.
As the Ireland players celebrated in front of the away fans in the corner, the Czechs formed up on halfway looking totally sickened and demoralised. Ireland could empathise, having started the first qualifier against Hungary by going 0-2 down in chaotic fashion.
Maybe it was out of some subconscious sympathy that Ireland immediately threw the stricken Czechs a lifeline.
A shirt pull is always supposed to be a foul but English football decided a couple of years ago to not bother applying the rule most of the time at set-pieces. Manning didn’t need to grab the Czech captain Krecji by the back of his shirt – the ball was probably going harmlessly out of play. In English football you usually get away with it. Referee Glen Nyberg didn’t need VAR this time to award the penalty. Schick nailed it into the roof of the net and the Czechs believed again.
The Czechs were chasing the game and gambling at the back. There was space there if Ireland could use it. But by the hour mark they were starting to look tired.
There was not a lot happening in the Czech half and for Ireland most of the positive moments involved defenders standing up to pressure. O’Shea delighted the Ireland crowd winning a tussle with the much bigger Chory, coming away with the ball and then holding off two challenges before winning a foul.
Ireland had no control of the game but then neither did the Czechs. The game was roaming like a wild thing.
Ireland decided if they could not control it then the best thing to do was try to kill it.
Manning was hurt in a challenge and went down needing treatment. The Czechs roared their disgust and Heimir Hallgrímsson took the opportunity to send on Browne and Robbie Brady for Manning and Taylor, who were both on a booking.
On 72 minutes the blessed Nyberg awarded another pressure-relieving foul. The Czech fans again had occasion to vent their bitterness, first at the referee and then at Ireland, as they took their sweet time over the restart.
You realised this might be the most an Ireland team has ever been whistled. On 75 minutes, Ogbene protected a ball as it was running out for a goal kick in front of the Ireland fans. On 80 minutes, Brady did the same by the other corner flag. That got the Ireland fans singing “I just can’t get enough.” The time was running out and the Czechs were losing heart.
But Nyberg wasn’t only giving free kicks to Ireland. With a couple of minutes remaining he whistled against Browne near the corner flag. Krejci hurled himself at the cross and bundled it in at the near post.
The Czech ultras behind Kovar’s goal started up that song which translates more or less as “if you’re not jumping you’re not a Czech”. They’d tried it at 0-2 down in the first half, receiving a tepid response, but this time the whole stadium joined in.
Ireland had to overcome the disappointment and fight their way back into this game. Hallgrímsson tried to inject energy back into the team with substitutions, Idah and Jimmy Dunne replacing the exhausted Ogbene and Coleman. And in fact they had just started to get back on top of their equally exhausted opponents when another extra-time sub, Sammie Szmodics, suffered the terrible injury that effectively ended the game.
Tomas Holes led with his shoulder into the challenge, Szmodics went with his head. The collision was sickening and the Ireland striker flopped to the ground on his back, arms outstretched, and lay completely still. It happened almost at the feet of Hallgrímsson, who saw that Szmodics had lost consciousness and shouted for the game to stop. The match never really got going again.
At the end of these wild days in Prague we return to reality. For Ireland, football is suffering. This team gave everything. It wasn’t enough.
