Our U21 side suffered a humiliating six nil European Championship qualifying defeat by Germany in Tallaght Stadium this evening. With injuries, suspensions and withdrawal impacting upon resources this was always likely to be a difficult task but the margin of defeat was quite humbling. The visitors scored after just six minutes and while three of their remaining five goals were scored from the penalty spot they were comprehensive victors. Ireland now drop to third on the Group Five table behind Norway on goal difference and while technically we still retain the outside possibility of a play-off spot by finishing second there are long odds about that with visits to Israel and Germany our two remaining fixtures.