Football Daily | World Cup double-screening pain and a change of summer planning

. UK edition

Republic of Ireland fans watching their agonising defeat on penalties from a bar in Dublin
Republic of Ireland fans watching their agonising defeat on penalties from a bar in Dublin Photograph: Nick Elliott/Inpho/Shutterstock

In today’s Football Daily: World Cup pain

PAIN AND NO GAIN

Pass the paracetamol because Football Daily’s neck is in absolute bits. Two penalty shootouts at the same time will do that to you, eyes bouncing from Wales’s heartbreak in Cardiff to the Republic of Ireland’s agony in Prague. Alas, neither will feature at the Geopolitics World Cup after their playoff semi-final defeats. For Ireland, it’ll be a minimum of 28 years between appearances at the big show. At least they’ll always have Troy Parrott’s glorious week in November. For Wales, it’s … ah, the long wait ended at the Human Rights World Cup in 2022. Never mind.

In hindsight, was the double-screening pain worth it? The lack of original storytelling is disappointing. Dan James gave Wales the lead against Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Ireland went 2-0 up inside 23 minutes against the Czech Republic. Edin Dzeko, 73, rose from a corner to equalise in the 86th minute … Ladislav Krejci rose from a corner to equalise in the 86th minute. Karl Darlow saved first in the shootout to give Wales the advantage … Caoimhín Kelleher saved first in the shootout to give Ireland the advantage. “My heart hurts,” sighed Craig Bellamy. “Just pain, we all feel pain,” lamented Heimir Hallgrímsson. Incredible drama? This was a blatant copy-and-paste job.

Instead of meeting in a playoff final, Wales will now welcome Northern Ireland for the glummest of friendlies on Tuesday. Good luck getting up for that one: both sides are better off with a night in, hot chocolates and a pick from this list (Superbad, since you’re asking). Michael O’Neill’s side exited after their 2-0 defeat by Italy in Bergamo, with Gennaro Gattuso’s boys a game away from their first World Cup appearance since 2014, an embarrassing gap for the four-time winners. “We have to win, we have no other choice,” roared the old midfield warrior. “It’s difficult, we knew this game was tough, so now we must try to recharge the batteries.”

England and Uruguay were in the same group as Italy 12 years ago, when Luis Suárez, in his chomp, struck twice past Joe Hart to set up an early World Cup exit for Roy Hodgson’s side. Even with that Iceland defeat two years later, this was technically an even lower point for England, a group-stage departure with a match still to play. They’ll meet Uruguay in a friendly on Friday night for the first time since that encounter in São Paulo, and it’s a lot harder to see Thomas Tuchel’s team leaving after two games this time around. Mr Roy, of course, bounced back at club level, his appetite for the game undiminished. So much so that at 78, two years on from leaving Crystal Palace, he’s decided to have another crack at it with Bristol City. As Big Website put it: sensational.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Scott Murray from 7.45pm GMT for hot international football friendly updates from England 0-0 Uruguay.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The players are holding the school bags close to their heart in remembrance of the 165 girls the Americans killed in an Iranian school” – a media official for the Iran men’s team explains their tribute before Friday’s friendly against Nigeria in Turkey, following last month’s bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, southern Iran, which killed between 175 and 180 people, most of them girls between the ages of seven and 12.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily letters. Couldn’t Mike Wilner simply configure his phone to automatically forward calls from his mum to Riccardo Calafiori? Win-win” – Bernard Clark.

That description in Wednesday’s Football Daily – ‘It is no great shame to have such a long run, collect plenty of awards on the way, finally realise the industry has moved on and there is nothing fresh you can bring to compete with the elite rivals’ – sounded so much like Football Daily’s story arc. Without the awards, I mean” – Steve Mintz.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … Steve Mintz. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.

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