There are ways of leaving a tournament. You can go out with a sheen of glory, having gone toe-to-toe with a great opponent. You can be unlucky and go home raging at referees and the fates. You can self‑immolate in a blaze of red cards or own goals or spectacular errors.
Or you can slink away without leaving a trace – and that was the path followed by Czechia. Nobody in 20 years will remember they were involved in this World Cup, other perhaps than Ireland fans reflecting on what a mess Czechia made of the place they pinched from them in the playoffs.
