History repeating itself as Republic of Ireland hopes all but vanish early

Another case of history repeating itself, as the Republic of Ireland find themselves all but out of qualification contention after just two games of the Euro 2024 campaign.

The defeat by France in the opening group game was understandable considering Didier Deschamps side had just reached their second consecutive World Cup final, and the Ireland performance augured well for a good pop at the Dutch to snatch the second automatic place for next year's tournament.

A second consecutive loss, to the fourth ranked side, would be extremely disappointing in normal circumstances, however, in the context of this group it is effectively fatal.

Ireland would have to do something extraordinary to go and qualify out of the group at this stage, and being honest, the group have looked particularly ordinary over the past 12 months.

The previous campaign, the Nations League, the one that Stephen Kenny was targeting to win, mirrors the current Euro group, as Ireland lost their opening two games to Armenia, followed by a home defeat to Ukraine, while the 2022 World Cup qualifying group was also over before it really got going thanks to opening defeats to Serbia, Luxembourg and then Portugal.

Looking back to when the draw was made for the Euro 2024 qualifying groups, there was no doubt that Ireland got hit with the worst possible group, and while the idea of qualification was certainly seen as an outside chance, at best, the team would still have been expected to be competitive and maintain an interest and an influence in proceedings right up to the business end in October and November.

Six points from the opening three games would have been the lowest tally that Ireland could take into the summer break, while there would have been a glimmer of