Sammie Szmodics will remain in a Prague hospital overnight following a sickening collision with Czech Republic defender Stepan Chaloupek near the end of extra-time as the Republic of Ireland lost the World Cup playoff at the Fortuna Arena on penalties.
“Sammie was unconscious on the ground, but we have good doctors and they took care of him on the grass,” said Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson. “He’s now at hospital and back to consciousness. He’s just being tested and checked and monitored and he will stay here tonight and hopefully fly back to Ireland tomorrow.”
Hallgrímsson revealed that Szmodics was introduced in extra-time to take a penalty in the shoot-out. The Ipswich Town attacker replaced Jayson Molumby with five minutes remaining, only to be carried off the field after the collision.
’It’s really hard to take’: Ireland’s penalty heartbreak after early dominance
Troy Parrott, Adam Idah and Robbie Brady all scored in the shoot-out while Caoimhín Kelleher denied Mojmir Chytil, for a 3-2 lead. Finn Azaz and Alan Browne had their spot-kicks saved by Czech goalkeeper Matej Kovar before Jan Kliment’s strike ended Ireland’s dream of bridging a 10-year gap to feature at a major tournament. Browne also missed a penalty when Ireland lost the shoot-out in 2020 to Slovakia to qualify for Euro 2021.
Hallgrímsson admitted that Szmodics was one of the six penalty takers chosen by the Ireland management.
“We had a list prepared. Sammie was one of six names.
“We feel the same pain as all of them [the players]. We need to give them support. It doesn’t matter how many hug you when this happens, it’s just going to be as painful as you would expect.
“Pain. I feel pain, I feel pride in the performance of the players, they gave their all. I feel gratitude towards the supporters who turned up and supported us through the whole game and even after. I feel pride being a part of that group.
“We will take with us that we can play teams higher than us in the Fifa rankings, that we can punch above out weight and that we can compete with Portugal, Hungary, Czech [Republic].
“We came here with three wins in a row. That has not happened for a very long time. This was the biggest game that most of these teams played. They will grow from it.”
Ahead of the playoff final against Denmark next Tuesday to reach the World Cup this summer, the Czech manager Miroslav Koubek said: “I would like to see more of an actual game next time.”
On why Koubek decided to bench the team’s former captain Tomas Soucek, he revealed: “We wanted to tackle Troy Parrott in particular. We studied his style a lot and we managed to build the rest around that. It was quite successful. I wanted to have a better game, I wanted to fight the Irish but we needed to focus on Parrott.
“As we were losing 2-1 we needed to adapt and adjust our strategy. I explained it to Tomas and he agreed, accepting it as a professional, which he is. Our main goal was to put their sweepers under pressure.”
Having been stripped of the national captaincy last year, following an issue with fans, Soucek added: “It was more of a political thing. I came here wanting to help the guys. I play for the Czech Republic. They can take my armband, but they can’t take my heart.”