Dead end

Heaping the blame for a shoddy and hopeless performance against Vicente del Bosque’s Spanish aristocrats on his players, Trapattoni also opened a major rift between himself and his squad in a poorly judged series of after-match comments.

“There was fear, tension and they made mistakes which we didn't see at all before,” said Trapattoni. “We could see the weight on their shoulders.

“Perhaps the pressure started to tell. We made a lot of basic errors, this didn't happen in the past,” said Trap choosing to forget about a very similar collapse of his system and his team in Moscow during qualifying.

The very real possibility that Italy will heap insult onto injury in Poznan on Monday leaves Trapattoni’s system in tatters and Ireland supporters contemplating the need for change.