"Six minutes of madness" was how Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson described his side's capitulation to England at Wembley Stadium on Sunday evening.
Five second-half goals following the sending off of Liam Scales eight minutes after the break, as Ireland were humiliated by their old foes to end their Nations League campaign in shocking defeat.
A gutsy and, mostly disciplined, first-half performance showed signs that Ireland could nullify the threat of one of the world footballing superpowers, however, a moment of petulance by Scales in the first half, kicking the ball away in frustration, would come back to haunt the Celtic man, who had barely put a foot wrong all evening.
Until, of course, he chopped down Jude Bellingham inside the penalty box, which not only resulted in a penalty for the hosts, but it also led to the former Shamrock Rovers man getting sent off for his second bookable offence.
🏴 5-0 🇮🇪
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 17, 2024
'It was six minutes, eight minutes of madness... It was a lot of shock.'
Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson says his side 'lost their heads' in the second half pic.twitter.com/EE8gqbvtwN
Harry Kane dispatched from the spot, and six minutes later, Ireland were out on their feet, as a result of two quick-fire England goals from Anthony Gordon and Conor Gallagher.
In the end, England settled for five, when they really could have hit double digits, as Ireland had no answer for their bombardment throughout the chastening second half at Wembley.
"I am lost for words. Six minutes of madness," said Hallgrimsson, speaking at the post match press conference. "It was a shock conceding a penalty, conceding a goal, losing a player.
"We probably lost our heads at this moment, leading into a second and third goal. Lost our heads. Gave up.
"We struggle with confidence, and it clearly took away all confidence from what we did really well in first half. You cannot explain things like that, it just happens, a slap in the face that was difficult to come back from."
"I mean we lost what we were doing in the first half, maybe it is too harsh to say give up," he added, when asked to clarify what he meant by saying the players "gave up".
"It is easy to criticise when you are not playing, we had a game plan that was working until it was not working.
"Six minutes. Three nil down, down a player, against a team like England, it is a shock. I didn’t feel we had any way out from there. It was about limiting the damage from there."
Hallgrimsson was also loathe to attempt to make any argument for the defence of the thrashing that his side took.
"It is easy to stand on the sideline and criticise," he said. "After the first half we had the game we wanted it to be, we were defending compact, they didn't find ways to play through us.
"Conceding a goal and losing a player so early in the second half, it is easy to criticise from outside but look: excuses when you lose 5-0 is kind of pathetic.
"We are not talking about positives. It is embarrassing to lose five zero."
Hallgrimsson did, however, feel that his side were denied the opportunity to take a first-half lead when Evan Ferguson was hauled down inside the box, yet somehow not apparently reviewed by VAR.
But the manager was not in the mood to attempt to suggest that there would have been a different outcome had the penalty been awarded.
"I thought it was a penalty for sure," said Hallgrimsson. "I don’t remember what the referee said, as to why they didn’t give it, but of course that would have changed the momentum in the game.
"Again, I don’t want to make excuses. The first-half was good, let’s take that as a positive to build on moving forward.
"We need to play against teams like England, that probably have better players than us, and the first half gave us an idea how we can play against a team like England."
Looking beyond the game and into the World Cup qualifying year, Hallgrimsson said that he would try to pick positives from the game, having watched his side settle well into the game after thwarting England's quick-fire start to the contest.
"If you can play like this for 50 minutes, let's hope next game we can do it for longer," he said. "And with a little luck, if we got a penalty and scored a goal, it is a totally different game. It is a psychological advantage to us until the scenario we had today.
"I believe in these guys but the past has been tough. We just need to use this to our advantage, take positives from this game. There were a lot of negatives, but for me it is important to look at the positives."
