For extended periods during last night’s first leg, Ireland were embarrassed by both Estonia’s elegance of touch and control of the midfield. And, overall, Giovanni Trapattoni’s side were probably lucky to, first of all, draw the Estonians and, secondly, to see them self-destruct.

But, in truth, that’s all colour. Just more arguable points in the ongoing debate about Trapattoni’s exact style of play.

And, ultimately, only one aspect of it all is truly undeniable: Ireland are on the verge of only a fifth international tournament in their history.

And, when you break all of that down to the bare bones, it is an undeniable achievement.

For a start, it ends a decade-long wait for qualification. Secondly, it only happened after Ireland came out of a group which featured a well-populated Euro 2008 semi-finalist and a team that reached the last 16 of the 2010 World Cup. After that, they then went and all but eliminated a side that had come out of a group with three World Cup qualifiers themselves. And they didn’t just beat Estonia. They battered them.

It should, of course, be acknowledged here that we’ve argued on these pages before that international football has never been more open. As a result of sides like Slovenia knocking out Russia in 2010 and teams like Greece actually winning championships, we still believe that qualification should now be the least of every mid-tier team’s aims.

There also remain justifiable concerns about the exact style of play. Completely ceding midfield – as Ireland again did tonight – could have embarrassing consequences against sides who really know how to use the ball. And there is a chance Ireland could end up in a group with Spain, Germany and Croatia.

But, first of all, Ireland have now met that first target. Trapattoni has achieved the objective he was hired for. That represents a basic success. Even if there are many caveats about his manner.

Secondly, the exact nature of the 4-0 win over Estonia did illustrate some semblance of progress.

On a series of previous occasions when Ireland have been in control of a game, the manager has been reluctant to press home the advantage – preferring to protect what he has. And that has invited an unnecessary amount of danger and doubt in a lot of games.

Against Estonia, at last, they impressively and clinically went for the jugular.

Afterwards, Trapattoni was keen to emphasise that situation was the inevitable high point of a long evolution for his team – that the team was always eventually going to produce that kind of proactive football.

It’s highly possible, of course, that he was retrospectively applying that analysis; that he saw his team look clinical and then opportunistically claiming credit.

It’s also even more probable that Ireland only looked so emphatic because they were fortunate that Estonia self-destructed with the two red cards.

But, in saying that, the chances still had to be created and taken. And that’s what they did. How often have other, stronger sides been congratulated for only performing moderately for the majority of a game before then killing it off in a flurry of late goals?

Ireland did step forward. They did make the most of the opportunity.

And that is progress, no matter how qualified.

Because, ultimately, that’s the key word: “qualified”.

Ireland have two feet in Euro 2012. They’re just waiting for the door to close behind them.