EURO 2016: Belgium deliver a hammer blow to Republic of Ireland hopes

“But I think that overall we were beaten today by a better team. If we do what we need to do on the pitch, then everything will be good”. It’s good because we faced the reality.

Ireland knew they had to throw caution to the wind in search an equaliser and went close when Brady saw a close-range shot blocked by Meunier with 59 minutes gone. He was very good today. Marc Wilmots’s side provided the flawless response to so much criticism of their recent performances, with Romelu Lukaku scoring on 48 and 70 minutes, and man of the match Axel Witsel scoring with a header, on 61 minutes. Lukaku controlled De Bruyne’s square pass before driving the ball low into the bottom left corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Axel Witsel doubled the score in the 61st, when he jumped above Ireland midfielder James McCarthy to head in Thomas Meunier’s cross for his first global goal in almost two years.

Ireland went on the attack in an attempt to claw back the arrears, but the team was once again caught out by a pacey Belgian counterattack.

Having reclaimed their finishing instinct, Belgium would add another not long after, captain Eden Hazard doing well to keep the ball alive down the right in a Belgium counter as he manufactured a two-on-one at the back, Hazard unselfishly laying it off for Lukaku who took his time to tuck it past Randolph for his second of the afternoon on 70 minutes.

Witsel, who was named man of the match, said the first goal was the key.

He said: “I am happy for my team-mates, that’s the most important thing”. But despite all this, Belgium struggled to really break down a solid Irish backline in the first half. “We spoke about this privately”.

Witsel heaped praise on Lukaku, saying his teammate should have been named man of the match instead, for his two goals.

Belgium head coach, Marc Wilmots is defiant in the face of criticism, stating only death can affect him. “I don’t think that will be as hard as it looks right now”.

Manager Martin O’Neill said: “It’s been mentioned twice to me and I know that the players seem to be pretty adamant about it”.

The defeat against Italy had raised renewed question marks over whether Belgium’s supposed “golden generation” of players could deliver on a tournament stage.

“I think there’s two ways of looking at it”, O’Neill said.

Belgium now has three points from its two games in Group E, while Ireland has one. However, unless they can defeat the Italians by a heavy margin while Sweden scrape a narrow win over Belgium, it would only be as one of the four best third-placed teams.

Clark, who scored an own goal against Sweden in Ireland’s opener, was at fault for Belgium’s third goal as he lunged in on Hazard, who was too quick for the defender and broke free from the challenge. Ireland will likely need to beat Italy to stand a chance of advancing. O’Neill’s men now have an inferior goal difference after their recent 3-0 defeat and would need a big win in their final game to overtake the Swedes, who only lost 1-0 in their second fixture.