Giovanni Trapattoni turned on his Republic of Ireland players after their Euro 2012 dream turned into a nightmare.

The Boys in Green already know they are coming home after their final game against Trapattoni’s native Italy on Monday having suffered their heaviest competitive defeat for 41 years against world and European champions Spain.

But rather than show sympathy for his players, who were humiliated by a team who are in Poland and Ukraine to reclaim their trophy, he lashed out at his players for freezing on the big stage.

Venting his anger: Giovanni Trapattoni shows his frustration in Gdansk as the Republic slump to their heaviest competitive defeat for 41 years

‘I will ask the lads how on earth it is possible, after two games, we have conceded two goals in the opening three or four minutes. We made the same mistakes we made against Croatia,’ said Trapattoni, who played Robbie Keane in an unfamiliar lone-striker role before withdrawing Simon Cox at half-time.

‘Something has changed from our qualifying campaign. Fear and tension has meant that we have made mistakes we didn’t make in the qualifiers.

‘We can see the weight on the players’ shoulders, but I haven’t seen this in training and I am very sad about this.

‘Spain are like an orchestra. They involve everybody when they move the ball and their players operate at the moment like they play with their eyes closed.

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