Ireland’s UEFA European Championship qualification campaign ends in defeat with a 1-0 defeat to the Netherlands in Amsterdam this evening.

Wout Weghorst’s unstoppable 11th minute strike was enough to hand Stephen Kenny his sixth loss in the group stages, sending the Dutch into the European Championship in 2024.

The game began with half chances for both sides - Alan Browne digging the ball from beneath his feet to shoot straight at Bart Verbruggen prior to Browne being dispossessed by Xavi Simons who shot for wide for his side’s first attempt of the evening.

The game’s first goal came just after the eleven minute mark courtesy of former Manchester United and Burnley striker, Wout Weghosrt.

The men in orange fed the ball into the Weghorst with Nathen Collins attempting to get around the big striker who spun him. While Collins looked to turn and chase the gigantic Weghorst, Manning and Collins collided in comical fashion leaving a clear path to the goal.

Weghorst took his time before rifling the ball into the near side top corner past Gavin Bazunu to give his side the lead and in position to qualify from the group with one game to spare.

After the opener the Netherlands began to tighten their grip on the game, creating some aesthetically pleasing passages of play that led to very little in the way of shots at the Irish goal.

Ireland managed to create promising opportunities of their own at times but Ronald Koeman’s side remained in almost complete control in the opening 45 minutes.

As the half drew to a close, Ireland began to transform into the architects of their own downfall by giving the ball away with some sloppy passages of play with each poor pass more unforgivable than the last.

The second half started in the same pattern as the first half ended with the Netherlands creating chance after chance but were unable to double their advantage through Xavi Simons effort, which was blocked by his teammate Cody Gakpo, nor a Tijjani Reijnders long shot which Bazunu fortuitously clambered onto the post.

Ireland had thought they had equalised when substitute Adam Idah ran behind the Netherlands rear guard to fire a shot through the body of Verbruggen, but as the referee waited to see if the ball had crossed the line, the linesman’s flag was raised leaving that exercise pointless.

Bazunu produced some impressive saves throughout the course of the final 45 minutes of action to keep Ireland within touching distance of the Dutch but Stephen Kenny’s men never looked like creating that one clear cut chance to steal a point off Koeman’s men.

Ireland were outperformed in the shots attempted category by 18 shots to two, which was a microcosm of the game as a whole.

The result sees Ireland finish the group in fourth, only picking up points against Gibraltar in a difficult group for the boys in green. Stephen Kenny looks to have managed his final competitive game for Ireland with the friendly match against New Zealand coming up in the coming days.

With Kenny likely to say goodbye to the home fans at the Aviva on Tuesday, Irish fans begin to ponder who might be likely to take the job, who the FAI will be able to pay and who will want to take over this young but unproven side.