Soccer: The game may have been an embarrassment for them, but what followed at Amsterdam's Arena on Saturday night verged, for the home side's galaxy of stars, on ritual humiliation with the pre-planned Euro 2004 send-off looking more like a send-up in the wake of defeat to Ireland.

Trouble had been brewing for some time, with the team's manager, Dick Advocaat, roundly booed every time he was shown on the stadium's two big television screens during the game's second half. Clarence Seedorf received similar treatment when he came on and, by the end, even those normally considered favourites by the crowd were being treated with undisguised derision.

It got worse, though, much worse. Having each been presented with flowers and led to the centre circle, the Netherlands' finest had to stand through a 10-minute video comprising goals they had scored on better outings than this. Inevitably, the footage was accompanied by a bone-shakingly loud rendition of Tina Turner's Simply the Best. All looked uncomfortable, and some, including Jaap Stam, made clear attempts to persuade those in charge to cut short the charade.

Not a bit of it. The Dutch federation had paid for those balloons hanging in nets suspended from the Arena's ceiling in readiness for the celebration's finale and by God they weren't going to see them go to waste. For another 10 minutes the dejected players suffered as they were circled by a bewilderingly chirpy singer who, one suspected, was belting out hastily rewritten numbers that mocked the players standing nearby as wasters and buffoons.

Eventually, the music stopped and an attempt was made to interview Ruud van Nistelrooy, but even before the microphone cut out he could barely be heard above the crowd's jeering. Finally, mercifully, the organisers decided enough was enough.

Philip Cocu, the team's captain, made a brief, slightly rambling but largely dignified speech, which amounted to an apology, and down into a by now almost empty stadium floated thousands of orange balloons, each looking as appropriate as a streamer at a wake.

As the locals made their way to their dressing-room, the first of the Irish were already leaving. Unaware of the full extent of the fiasco that had followed the final whistle, Shay Given was one of the first to express some sympathy for the Dutch after the disappointing night they had suffered in front of their fans.

"Still," sighed the Newcastle goalkeeper, "I'd take losing that game and going to the European championships over the win and a holiday."

In a gymnasium turned press centre under the main stand, Brian Kerr looked like a man who, just then, wouldn't have swapped this win for anything.

Largely ignored by a Dutch press waiting like a trigger-happy firing squad for their manager, Kerr described his side's performance as "magnificent", but added that he was not entirely surprised by the outcome.

"I felt this was possible before the match," he said with that mischievous grin of his. "I'd seen the movie before, the one of us winning games with younger teams. I kind of sense that they wanted to prove themselves after last Saturday."

That they did, with some of Kerr's favourites - Graham Barrett and Alan Quinn - contributing handsomely to the victory. Minutes later the manager ran into Quinn on the way out of the stadium. He stopped and gave him a warm embrace before the player turned, smiling, and headed for the bus.

At the end of a night when his team had outplayed the Dutch and gone away worthy winners, it turned out Kerr did better send-offs too.