Joachim Löw at a loss as to why Germany squandered initiative

The peculiar thing was that on an evening when Ireland dared to play football against the world champions, their goal for the ages held echoes of the Charlton era.

Darren Randolph's long clearance was perfect in weight and flight, sending the imposing Mats Hummels back-pedalling in sudden alarm and Shane Long into a sudden, glorious one-on-one attack against the presumably astonished Manuel Neuer. Long's approach was swift and nerveless and his right-footed thumper was beautifully struck even as the menacing shadow of Jerome Boateng engulfed him.

A split second of wondrous silence seemed to fall over Dublin as the shot travelled through the night and the various moments of Irish football – Ronnie Whelan, Ray Houghton, Niall Quinn, Robbie Keane – and revealing itself as one of those never-to-be-forgotten goals even as it bounced in the back of Germany's net. Bedlam across Ireland. Disbelief in the stadium. Joachim Löw paling beneath his tan and the night Martin O'Neill had been waiting for.

“I am ecstatic that we have won the game,” the Derry man said afterwards. “You would think that the beating the Germans and not being beaten by them at all . . . you would think that would be at least deserving of winning the tournament. But it is not the case. We haven’t even qualified.”

Automatic qualification

A win on Sunday night against

Poland

night would guarantee automatic qualification but at worst this win ensures Ireland a play-off place at the expense of the Scots. O’Neill was keeping tabs on a night of lurching emotions in Glasgow and was aware that the Scots led Poland 2-1 at half-time.

“The answer is yes. I knew the half-time score. I felt we had to go and win the game. Not that we weren’t trying beforehand. In the first half, I thought we gave possession away a bit easily. I thought they were exceptionally brave in the second half to get on the ball, which I asked them to do.

“They showed great courage to get on the ball in tight situations and not panic. Then we started to come more into the game – even though we still had to withstand pressure from the Germans. But it was a fantastic effort. Then Shane comes on and just scores a wonder goal for us and gives us something to hang on to.”

The Germans reacted to the setback by increasing their already-heavy attention on the Irish goal. All evening, there was a lofty and casual air about the play of the visitors: as if it was matter of when, not if.

When Thomas Müller’s 78th minute shot somehow whizzed past Randolph’s goal, there was a growing sense that it might be Ireland’s night.

The Irish back four stayed organised and composed and James McCarthy grew in stature throughout that half, impudent and healthily aggressive and always perfectly placed to make a tackle, break a pass and, in the end, magnificent in the disregard he showed for the glittering reputations around him.

An exasperated Löw shed both his scarf and hauteur afterwards. “Overall I think it was one of the most unnecessary defeats we have had to accept in recent years. I think they had one and only scoring chance whereas we squandered a good many of those.

“If you ask me to analyse this game or ask for conclusions, nothing really occurs to me right now. If you ask me for lessons, despite creating so many chances the final ball didn’t reach a player from our team. We avoided 99 of those long balls but the 100th they made.”

Maybe it looked that way to him. To the Irish fans, O'Neill's team played their best football of the campaign in the hour that mattered most. But the early stages were all about Germany. Shay Given left the field in the 43rd minute, stretchered off to generous applause after his right knee seemingly gave out.

Attacking talent

It wasn’t clear if he had injured it or merely exhausted the leg from a full half of hurriedly cleared back-passes as the cream of German attacking talent came sprinting towards him. In the midst of the Germany’s playing-for-fun dominance, Ireland had Wes Hoolahan. Over the course of this campaign, the player who was all but locked out of Ireland teams has become its most compelling figure.

From his ninth-minute flick and spin away from Marco Reus, Hoolahan's nimble feet and mind enabled him to find the space and time to get on the ball and repeatedly play ball through the Germans.

He was the architect of Ireland's only real chance of the half, a neatly worked one-two which Jon Walters stabbed towards goal to earn a rare corner. At half-time was as much as Ireland could have dared to hope for. Nobody, at that stage, was evening dreaming about what would happen in the teams reappear. To Warsaw, then, with everything to play for. Unbelievable.