Ireland were cannibalised by their own emotions as the irrepressible energy slowly lapsed with fatique
Republic of Ireland players react during the penalty shoot-out at Fortuna Arena in Prague. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
The Easter passion arrived a week earlier for Ireland’s alternative religion last Thursday in a city where, almost 450 years ago, a group of Irish monks fled Cromwellian persecution.
But it will persist, from Prague to Dublin, in the guise of a tormented transubstantiation in the Aviva on Tuesday, when an unwanted friendly supplants what had been anticipated instead as the final step towards a first World Cup appearance in a generation.