Ireland have to settle for third as Poland do enough

Poland 2 Republic of Ireland 1

After the heroics against Germany, Ireland were denied their fairytale finish to this remarkable qualifying campaign here in Warsaw. They left at the end with their pride intact but no complaints. Through a breathless second half they gave their all, desperately chasing the solitary goal they needed to book their place in France next summer but Poland had a little too much for them in the end and the Irish, yet again, must place their hopes in the play-offs.

Who awaits them will depend to some extent on how some of the remaining groups pan out over the next couple of days but they'll be without John O'Shea and Jon Walters for the first of the two games, whoever they are against. O'Shea was dismissed late on after taking a second booking for a tackle on Robert Lewandowki that a team mate effectively obliged him to make while Walters picked up a yellow that will keep him out with a rash challenge in injury time. It was that sort of night.

Perhaps, as Martin O'Neill had suggested it might beforehand, all of the effort and energy they had expended against the world champions simply took its toll. Certainly they committed too many errors in what was a disjoined and fairly physical contest. Poland, at times, suggested they were vulnerable themselves at the back but the visitors rarely threatened from play while Robbie Brady, the source of O'Shea's troubles late on, wasn't quite on song with his set pieces and Lukasz Fabianski, as a result, barely had a really good save to make. Darren Randolph, by contrast, saw some serious action.

It had all started cagily enough but after a bit of early poking and prodding, the game opened up dramatically and as it did it started to become apparent that the Irish were far from on top of things around their own area.

They quickly paid for the lack of cohesion. Randolph saved well initially when an early O'Shea error allowed Kamil Grosicki a close range shot that the goalkeeper turned behind for a corner. Grosicki sent the corner towards Gregorz Krychowiak beyond the edge of the area from where the unmarked Seville midfielder managed to strike a low shot that slipped through a densely crowded area and just inside the post.

Within a minute or so, the visitors were level with Shane Long recklessly fouled and the Turkish referee giving a penalty when the contact had looked to be fractionally outside the box. The locals were clearly still aggrieved as Jon Walters stepped up to beat Fabianski from the spot.

If Ireland could just keep it to another exchange like that, they might have been thinking, of course, they’d be on the way to France but the underlying pattern of the game didn’t change really. It was open and fairly frantic stuff but it was the Poles who were on top and looking the more likely to score next.

In an effort to offer more protection to the centre backs, James McCarthy, who had started in a slightly more advanced role, began drop back alongside Glenn Whelan more but things were to get worse before they got better.

For Poland's second goal, the Everton midfielder and O'Shea got hopelessly sucked into doubling up on Pawel Olkowski and when he managed to slip the ball between them to Krzysztof Maczynski there was a sense that Ireland were in trouble. Sure enough, Robert Lewandowski timed his run perfectly and met his teammate's cross with a header that had the mark of a man who is at the height of his game just now.

For a prolonged spell after that, it was a more even contest with the Poles, understandably, taking their foot off the pedal somewhat and Ireland having to step things up in search of a second equaliser. They lost Long to injury early in the second while Whelan was replaced and McCarthy sought, with some success, to exert more influence.

As the half rolled on, though, Ireland were constantly trying to push that bit further up the field and as they did their opponents, somewhat inevitably, began to hit them on the break. Grosicki probably should have scored when Richard Keogh inadvertently helped a through ball into his path though Randolph came well to block. Seamus Coleman then made a brilliant intervention to prevent Lewandowki getting clear.

At the other end, the visitors were finding it hard to create anything so clear cut for Robbie Keane or anyone else and Brady's set pieces were generally gathered comfortably enough by Fabianski.

Ten minutes from time, he was finally given a save of note to make when O’Shea narrowly failed to make a clean contact with a Brady corner and after the ball was floated back in from the other side Keogh looked for an instant as if he might have headed home.

The Poles pressed on, though, doing enough to frustrate the Irish, keep their noses in front and threaten to grab a third. Against their determined resistance, O’Neill’s men simply weren’t good enough on the night and they may have to be a good deal better in the play-offs assuming they are not nearly as lucky as a last time.

For the moment at least, though, their hopes of a place at the finals survive.

Poland: Fabianski; Piszczek, Glik, Pazdan, Wawrzyniak; Linetty, Krychowiak; Olkowski, Maczynski, Grosicki; Lewandowski. Subs: Baszczkkowski for Olkowski (63 mins), Szukala for Maczynsk (78 mins), Peszko for Grosicki (85 mins)

Republic of Ireland: Republic of Ireland: Randolph (West Ham); Coleman (Everton), O'Shea (Sunderland), Keogh (Derby County), Brady (Norwich City); Whelan (Stoke City); Walters (Stoke City), McCarthy (Everton); Hendrick (Derby County), McClean (West Brom); Long (Southampton). Subs: Keane (LA Galaxy) for Long (55 mins), McGeady (Everton) for Whelan (58 mins), Hoolahan (Norwich City) for McClean (72 mins)

Referee: Cüneyt Çak?r (TUR)