Ireland hit for six of the worst as Trapattoni comes under pressure
If Coleman was a little unfortunate for that first when the ball came off his knee as he sought to tee up a clearance, he was caught badly for the second, getting a little over ambitious far up the pitch where he failed to get the better of Marcel Schmelzer and lost possession. He desperately tried to get back as the Germans swept forward through Mesut Özil and Müller whose low crossfield ball played Reus perfectly in for his second.
Having shown glimpses of his best and worst in the opening minutes when he followed a fine piece of defensive tracking and challenge with a hopelessly miscued clearance, Ward struggled to cope at left-back and neither of Ireland’s centre halves looked remotely on top of things.
In front of them, though, the early composure largely disappeared, with Simon Cox particularly guilty of handing the visitors opportunities to break due to careless or misplaced balls.
Walters continues to do his best while James McCarthy, Keith Fahey and Coleman raised spirits at time with some controlled play and well judged passes. But in reality it was the Germans who were making all the running and an early goal for them in the second half seemed likely to prompt an implosion.
It came courtesy of an Özil penalty after Klose had been clumsily taken down by Darren O’Dea and was followed by perhaps the most embarrassing goal of the evening with Klose getting between the home side’s two central defenders to chase down Schweinsteiger’s through ball and then simply rounding Keiren Westwood to sidefoot home.
With just over an hour gone the records began to tumble when Toni Kroos made it 5-0 by volleying O’Shea’s headed clearance straight into the bottom left corner. The substitute midfielder’s second, with seven minutes remaining, was at least as good with the 22-year-old, who had only previously scored twice in 32 appearances for his country, finding the top corner after being given plenty of time and space to line things up.
Trapattoni’s own first attempt to shore things up had involved bringing on Shane Long for Fahey and trying to reshape his side slightly shortly after the second half had got under way, but when he replaced Aiden McGeady with Andy Keogh at 5-0 the move seemed to test the crowd’s patience.
The 26-year-old, however, justified the manager’s continued faith in him with the late goal.
On a very difficult night, few of his team-mates could say the same but then it is Trapattoni himself who is bound to be ahead of them in the public’s firing line.
HEAVIEST DEFEATS: Our worst days on the soccer pitch
Spain 4 Ireland 0
Euro finals, Gdansk, June 2012
Ireland 0 Netherlands 4
Friendly, Dublin, August 2006
Ireland 1 Denmark 4
WC Qualifier, Dublin, Nov 1985
Brazil 7 Ireland 0
Friendly, Uberlandia, May 1982
Austria 6 Ireland 0
Euro Qualifier, Linz, October 1971
Ireland 1 Austria 4
Euro Qualifier, Dublin, May 1971
Hungary 4 Ireland 0
WC Qualifier, Budapest, Nov 1969
Ireland 0 Germany 4
Friendly, Dublin, May 1966
Czech Republic 7 Ireland 1
WC Qualifier, Prague, October 1961
Spain 5 Ireland 1
WC Qualifier, Seville, March 1961
Czech Republic 4 Ireland 0
Euro Qualifier, Bratislava, May 1959
England 5 Ireland 1
WC Qualifier, London, May 1957
Spain 6 Ireland 0
Friendly, Madrid, June 1952
Austria 6 Ireland 0
Friendly, Vienna, May 1952
Belgium 5 Ireland 1
Friendly, Brussels, May 1950
Poland 6 Ireland 0
Friendly, Warsaw, May 1937
Irish Free State 0 Spain 5
Friendly, Dublin, December 1931
– Eoghan Morrissey
