Lukaku strikes twice to help Belgium beat Ireland 3-0

The result leaves Martin O’Neill’s men bottom of Group E and in need of a win over Italy on June 22nd, with the Azzurri already assured of a place in the knockout stages as group winners.

Wilmots added: “I think the strategy was the good one but it was the players who did it and should be congratulated, but we have nothing yet, we have not qualified”.

In a prickly post-match news conference after Belgium’s convincing 3-0 win over Ireland on Saturday, Wilmots said he “bluffed” the media into thinking he would drop Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne.

“We have had a few setbacks and the next few games we have gone and won, or got the result we needed, so we have a good bunch of lads here who are positive”.

“It’ll be a tough task but hopefully we can go and do it”.

“My brother, Jordan, was on the bench and I wanted to celebrate with him”. They will, at least, come out fighting. “On the contrary. He is so present and with us that we never could be nostalgic for him”, he added.

The team to win this group will get Spain or Croatia; the team who finishes second will get Portugal, Austria, Hungary or Iceland.

Belgium leads Ireland 1-0.

“We felt we could do something in this particular game but it didn’t materialise for us, now we have to move on”.

“I ran less against Ireland and feel better”, he said.

Game over, but not tournament over according to goalkeeper Randolph, who is confident Ireland can bounce back in style against Italy. Drawing against Antonio Conte’s side will guarantee them third place should the Swedes lose to Belgium, but because only the top four out of six third place teams progress, a haul of two points is highly unlikely to be enough to qualify.

“We had a ball cleared off the line (at 0-0 in the first half) and I thought, we have to remain calm”.

Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi says the country’s lack of star power will not work against them at Euro 2016.

Roy Keane has called for Ireland to play with “courage and balls” in Wednesday’s do-or-die showdown with Italy in Lille.

“I think from the way the team played they will draw great strength from that”, he said, indicating that, Walters apart, the line-up may be unchanged at the impressive Matmut Atlantique stadium. And then came the second half, where Belgium just really delivered and Ireland were left with no way back.

Robbie Keane, a wonderful servant for Ireland but fast approaching his 36th birthday, was the man O’Neill turned to in the closing stages, perhaps to give Shane Long a rest for the Italy game as much as anything, because by that point Belgium were out of sight. “Then you start to chase the game a little bit and get stretched and very fine players can punish you, and that is what happened”.