Welcome to LIVE coverage of Ireland's final Euro 2012 match against Italy at Stadion Miejski in Poznan.

Pirlo gives it away and Doyle charges through the middle! Crowded out before he can get a shot away...

After that hideous UEFA countdown, we are under way! A tremendous noise from the Irish fans, many of whom sang both anthems. Italy kick off, playing from left to right as we see it.

Tonight's referee is Turkish - Cuneyt Cakir.

Ooh, Chiellini absolutely belted out the last line of that anthem. He's psyched. Jazzed. Etc.

Ireland are in their white change strip, for those counting at home. A group of Italian fans wear t-shirts spelling out 'Ciao Mamma'.

Anthems! Ireland: noisy; Italy: jaunty but quieter.

The teams are in the tunnel - Damien Duff captains Ireland tonight on the occasion of his 100th cap. Bet Roy Keane's not too happy about that tokenism...

OK, time for one more bit of classic Irish action - here's Jack Charlton and John Aldridge going ape at USA '94. (Web users only)

Our columnist Jim White is also in the Stadion Miejski in Poznan - he tweets: "Must be all of 450 Italian supporters in Poznan for Ireland game. There are at least that number of Irish tricolours fluttering in stadium. There'll be more Italians watching in the Bar Italia, Soho than are here..."

Ray Houghton, anyone?

These sides have met twice before in major tournaments, picking up one victory apiece; Italy had the better at home soil in the World Cup 1990, Ireland got their revenge by the same scoreline in 1994 in the USA. (Opta)

An interesting bit of news doing the rounds - Tottenham are *apparently* in preliminary negotiations with Laurent Blanc to be their new manager. An odd choice, and odd to be in talks with him halfway through a major tournament...

Ominous Tweet from Castrol: Italy are without a win in six consecutive games at major tournaments for the first time in their history. Mamma mia etc...

Eurosport-Yahoo's supervising editor Sean Fay is in Poznan in his capacity as an Ireland fan and, signal permitting, he'll be making pithy remarks throughout the game.

Time for an introduction: Good evening, my name's Alex Chick, and I'll be bringing you live text commentary of this game. If you fancy getting in touch, Twitter is the place to do it - @alexchick81

If all those permutations are a bit daunting, don't worry. All will be explained as we go along.

It is this last scenario - a 2-2 Spain-Croatia draw taking Italy's fate out of their hands - that has got fans of the Azzurri nervous. An almost identical scenario played out at Euro 2004, when Sweden and Denmark drew 2-2 to send Italy home.

ITALY win, SPAIN 2-2 CROATIA (or higher-scoring draw) - Spain and Croatia through, Italy are powerless.

ITALY win, SPAIN 1-1 CROATIA - It comes down to overall goal difference again. Spain would definitely go through; Italy would have to beat Ireland by at least two goals (and not 2-0) - otherwise Croatia are through.

ITALY win, SPAIN 0-0 CROATIA - Italy win the group, Spain second (edging Croatia on overall goal difference).

Now, it gets complicated if SPAIN draw with CROATIA and ITALY win. All three teams would have five points, with the group decided by a mini-league between them. As all the matches will be draws, it comes down to goals scored. So...