Ireland had produced a determined rearguard action that kept the home side at bay for much of the game but much of the after-match debate surrounded the behaviour from the touchline of the Ireland manager, who was eventually banished to the tunnel after heatedly contesting a number of the referee’s decisions. Staunton is now likely to be handed a touchline ban by Uefa, at least for the next game against Cyprus on October 7. “I was delighted with the performance,” Staunton said. “The players showed that they care. They played with plenty of passion and heart and I thought we were very unfortunate not to come away with something.”
Whether Uefa are delighted with Staunton’s performance is another matter. In his first competitive game as Ireland manager, he lasted 74 minutes on the touchline before the Spanish referee, Luis Medina Cantalejo, tired of his remonstrations after Robbie Keane and then Kevin Doyle tumbled under challenges close to the technical area. Staunton was ordered out of the dugout and then appeared to throw away his identity card in disgust as he left the arena.
Afterwards the Ireland manager tried to make light of what had happened. “I kicked the ball out of frustration,” he said. “I thought we should have had a penalty or a free kick. I kick every ball. I head every ball. Unfortunately, I kicked a bottle of water. When you look at the goal, forget about refereeing decisions. The ball was going wide and took a cruel deflection.” Asked if he had thrown away his pass, Staunton replied: “No , I just dropped it.”
Shay Given had to produce a string of outstanding saves to keep Ireland in the match until the end but Staunton said there were a lot of positives to take out of the night’s performance. “We’ve shown that we can compete. I know we will get better from an attacking point of view, so I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a very tight group. We will keep building. The lads were sick as parrots in the dressing room. There wasn’t a word mentioned. They know they should have got something out of the game.”
Germany’s coach, Joachim Löw, said: “We always knew it was going to be tough. They were very physical and put a lot of long balls forwards which meant that it took us time to build our attacks. In the second half we picked up the pace and deserved the result. It was a difficult birth but that can produce a beautiful baby.”
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In the other Group D games, the two home sides won; the Czech Republic got a last-minute goal to beat Wales 2-1 while Slovakia thrashed Cyprus 6-1.