Stan says qualifying is 'out of our hands'

Republic of Ireland boss Steve Staunton admitted his side's European Championship qualifying hopes were effectively over after his side suffered a 1-0 defeat to the Czech Republic in Prague.

Marek Jankulovski's 15th-minute strike was enough to give Karel Bruckner's men a six-point lead over their Group D rivals, essentially a seven-point lead given the head-to-head record between the two sides.

Staunton admitted: 'It's out of our hands. It's up to the Czechs now and a lot of results would have to go our way. We both have to play Germany which is not going to be easy.

'We know it's a tall order but we'll be giving it a go. But it will also give the opportunity to our younger players to get some valuable experience before the next campaign.'

Staunton's side were outclassed in the early stages with Milan Baros racing onto Jaroslav Plasil's through-ball only to be denied by a fine challenge from Paul McShane with less than one minute on the clock.

Tomas Rosicky completely miskicked in the box, while Libor Sionko spurned two golden chances when he shot across the face of goal having twisted clear in the Irish box.

But the momentum changed after John O'Shea was forced off with suspected knee ligament damage in the 38th minute and replaced with Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt.

Hunt made an immediate impression and the Republic should even have gone in at the break level after the Czech defence stopped and Robbie Keane fed Kevin Doyle, who agonisingly shot against the post.

But Irish hopes were effectively ended on the hour when Hunt lunged in on a challenge on Jan Polak and was harshly issued with a straight red card by Greek referee Kyros Vassaras.

Staunton slammed the decision and he was backed up by veteran Czech boss Karel Bruckner, who described Vassaras' decision to bring a premature end to Hunt's night as 'unnecessary'.

Staunton said: 'I thought it was very harsh. Stephen has won the ball and his momentum took him through. The player acted injured but was up running around when Hunty had got off the pitch.

'There was a lot of play-acting and I wasn't happy with their centre-half Radoslav Kovac. The referee looked like he was only going to give him a yellow card until Kovac said something to him.

'There were a lot of decisions but what can we do about it, it's history. But I'm sure the referee's assessor will have his own report. We'll just have to wait and see what is the outcome.'

The Republic battled to the end with substitute Shane Long sending in a cross which proved agonisingly too deep for the onrushing Doyle, and McShane stabbing at Andy Reid's free-kick after it was spilled by Petr Cech.

But ultimately Ireland came up short and now need to depend on a near-miraculous series of results starting with victory over group leaders Germany at Croke Park next month.