Ah, not to be. The play-offs it is, then, a 2016 summer trip to France remaining a provisional booking until next month's play-offs are sorted, and as veteran watchers of play-offs involving the Republic of Ireland will attest, they're not always easily sorted.
Still, after that three-game dip midway through the group, when the team picked up just two points, losing away to Scotland then drawing at home to Poland and the Scots, the notion that the Irish players, come the campaign's end, would be feeling on the dejected side after having to settle for a play-off place seemed as likely as, well, beating the world champions last week.
They’d have bitten your hand, arm and shoulder off.
But after the euphoria of that German victory, the wave that carried the players to Warsaw half-promised another magical night. It might well have been – Richard Keogh will, most probably, be haunted by his failure to head home that Aiden McGeady cross 10 minutes from time. His tame effort directed straight into Lukasz Fabianski's grateful hands, the Polish goalkeeper promptly looking to the heavens in a "thanks very much" kind of way.
“Yeah,” said Keogh, “I should have scored. Aiden did well. It just came to me. I tried to head it down towards the goalie. He made a decent save but . . . I should have scored. I should have gone for the other corner, but I just wanted to make sure I hit the target.
“It’s disappointing. I thought the second half we played very well – we were the dominant team. First half was an even game, they just took their chances. I thought we were unfortunate, but we’ve got another chance in the play-offs so we’ve got to make sure that come November we’ll be ready.”
Without the suspended John O'Shea and Jon Walters, though?
“When you lose two players like that it’s disappointing. They’re fantastic players . . . a lot of experience. But we’ve shown before that whoever comes into the team steps up. We’ll go away, dust ourselves down and get ready for November.”
Séamus Coleman, meanwhile, was down but – quick to remind the crestfallen – definitely not out.
“There was a period in the summer when we drew against Scotland. If somebody had offered us a play-off we’d have definitely taken it, but after the performance the lads put in the other night, coming here with high confidence, we are, as you can imagine, disappointed.
“It just wasn’t to be. We let ourselves down a little bit, we’re disappointed with the goals we conceded.”
Too much space for Lewandowski?
“Yeah, a player of that calibre, you can’t let him have that much room in the box. He finished it well.
“But fair play to Poland, they got there in the end. We’ve just got to pick ourselves right back up now. We saw the support the country gave us before this game and if they can give us that support one more time next month then, fingers’ crossed, we can get there. We’re not out of this yet.”
