Sports

Ten-man Republic of Ireland flattened as five-star England dish out a merciless lesson

We’ll always have the half-time memories. For the Irish visitors to Wembley, 15 minutes of heaven was the bridge to 45 minutes of hell. A particularly brutal example of hope being a killer.

England 5 Republic of Ireland 0 Dara O’Shea, Josh Cullen, Nathan Collins and Finn Azaz cut dejected figures after conceding at Wembley We’ll always have the half-time memories. For the Irish visitors to Wembley, 15 minutes of heaven was the bridge to 45 minutes of hell. A particularly brutal example of hope being a killer.

The emphatic nature of the final scoreline, with the misery of the dying stages exacerbated by the insufferable English brass band belting out the melody for a rendition of ‘Ireland get battered, everywhere they go’, means there’s a degree of embarrassment attached to reflecting on the interval discussions..