Sorry Ireland suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat at the hands of a revitalised Belgium here in Bordeaux and must now somehow lift themselves and try to beat Italy in Lille next Wednesday if they are not to exit these European Championships at the group stage.

Having dominated possession and territory in a one-sided first half, Belgium - finally living up to billing as one of the most lethal teams in the competition - found their shooting boots in the second, blowing Ireland away with two goals from Everton’s Romelu Lukaku and one from Zenit’s Axel Witsel.

And, unlike in the group opener in the Stade de France against Sweden, this time the Irish could have no complaints that the scoreline wasn’t an accurate reflection of what was a torrid 90 minutes for Martin O’Neill’s men.

At kick off, Jon Walters’ absence through injury saw the manager revert to something closer to the line-up he’d used in Zenica when the Stoke man missed the first leg of Ireland’s qualification play off against Bosnia.

Robbie Brady, who scored a superb away goal that night, was pushed further up the left flank today, with Stephen Ward coming in for his first appearance in the finals at full back, while Jeff Hendrick moved across the middle of the pitch to fill Walters’s berth on the right.

Under pressure going into the game, Belgian manager Marc Wilmot’s made three changes from the side beaten 2-0 by Italy in their group opener, with Yannick Carrasco, Mousa Dembele and Thomas Meunier all coming into the starting line up.

And it was Belgium who made much the brighter start as their fluent passing and lively movement pegged back a ragged-looking Ireland in the game’s opening phase, Shane Long cutting an isolated figure upfront and not helped either by some baffling refereeing decisions which went against him.

By the time Eden Hazard blazed a great chance just over Darron Randolph’s bar in the 20th minute, there was already the sense that a breakthrough for the utterly dominant Belgians was only a matter of time, although when Yannick Carrasco had the ball in the Irish net shortly after, he was correctly ruled out for offside.

Four minutes from the break, the smallest man on the pitch, Wes Hoolahan, saved his team with a header off the line to deny Toby Alderweireld and, no doubt with considerable relief, Martin O’Neill’s men were able to get to the sanctuary of the dressing room with Randolph’s goal still intact.

But Irish parity lasted only two minutes into the second half as, after the referee had taken no action when Long got a kick in the head in the Belgian penalty box, Kevin De Bruyne mounted a swift counter-attack down Ireland’s left flank. And when the Manchester City star found Romelu Lukaku in the centre, the striker showed admirable composure to beat Randolph with an unerring low finish.

Ireland finally showed tentative signs of lifting their game in response but their short spell of pressure came to nothing before Belgium made it two, Aexl Witsel arriving late and unchallenged in the box to firmly head home Thomas Meunier’s cross

James McCarthy, who’d failed to track Witsel’s run and was generally having a thoroughly anonymous game, then made way for James McClean who tried to lead the Irish resistance with a couple of trademark runs.

But when the substitute lost possession near the Belgian endline, Ireland were punished by another blistering length of the pitch counter-attack, this time Hazard leading the charge before setting up Lukaku for his second and Belgium’s third.

Martin O’Neill emptied his bench in a bid to salvage something from the game but, long before the end, as the Belgian fans noisily celebrated, the thoughts of the huge Irish support in the 42,000-capactiy Stade de Bordeaux were already turning to next Wednesday in Lille, and the daunting challenge of what is now Ireland’s last chance to save their Euro 2016.

Belgium: Courtiois; Meunier, Alderweireld, Vermaelen, Vertonghen; Witsel, Dembele; (Nainggolam 57), Carrasco (Mertens 60), De Bruyne, Hazard; Lukaku (Benteke 82)

Ireland: Randolph; Coleman, O’Shea, Clark, Ward; Whelan, McCarthy (McClean 62) Hendrick, Hoolahan (McGeady 71), Brady; Long (Keane 78)

Referee Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)