Michael O’Neill fumed at a goal that “should clearly have been disallowed” after Northern Ireland’s hopes of progressing from World Cup qualifying Group A were ended by the Slovakia debutant Tomas Bobcek in a 1-0 stoppage-time defeat in Kosice.
Bobcek, who had only been on the pitch for three minutes, prodded in after Bailey Peacock-Farrell failed to deal with a corner, but Northern Ireland were enraged that a foul was not given as Daniel Ballard had gone down under pressure from Leo Sauer.
However, O’Neill’s side ended the night assured of a qualifying play-off place via the Nations League after Croatia beat the Faroe Islands 3-1, but frustration was the primary emotion.
Slovakia had already seen second-half strikes from Lukas Haraslin and David Strelec chalked off before Bobcek struck. Northern Ireland’s loss was compounded by a second yellow card for Ballard in the dying moments.
“You’re always disappointed when you lose a game late as we did, especially to a goal that should clearly have been disallowed,” O’Neill said. “There’s a clear push on Daniel Ballard at the corner, two hands on his back. The other two goals that were disallowed should have been disallowed. The first goal was offside, the lines clearly show that, the second goal was handball.
Slovakia now go to Leipzig on Monday with a chance to top the group if they can beat Germany, who stayed above them in first place in Group A on goal difference thanks to a 2-0 win over Luxembourg. The Newcastle striker Nick Woltemade scored both goals.
Woltemade put the visitors in front in the 49th minute and the Germans were surprisingly on the back foot for much of the first half. He added another in the 69th minute. But Julian Nagelsmann’s team had lacked any real punch going forward in the first half, while littering the pitch with defensive errors that allowed Luxembourg to carve out several scoring chances.
A win or draw will send Germany to the World Cup, while Slovakia must win to claim top spot in the group.
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Croatia completed a 3-1 comeback win over the Faroe Islands at home to secure their place at next year’s finals. With Croatia now having 19 points in Group L, second-placed Czech Republic can no longer catch them, as they sit on 13 points with only one match left to play against Gibraltar on Monday. The Faroe Islands have played all their games and will not qualify for their first World Cup despite picking up four wins. In the same group, Montenegro scraped to a 2-1 away win over minnows Gibraltar in a dead rubber.
The Netherlands are on the verge of qualification after battling back to draw 1-1 away against second-placed Poland in Group G. Jakub Kaminski handed Poland a half-time lead as they needed victory to keep alive hopes of topping the group. But Memphis Depay replied for the visitors in Warsaw shortly after the break to ensure the Dutch moved to 17 points with Poland second on 14.
The Netherlands need a draw at home to bottom-placed Lithuania in their last fixture in Amsterdam on Monday to secure their World Cup berth, but with a lead of three points over Poland and a hugely superior goal difference, Ronald Koeman’s side are almost there. With Finland having suffered a surprise loss at home to Malta earlier on Friday, Poland are guaranteed to finish at least second in the group. Poland can now only win the group with a goal deluge away in Malta if the Dutch lose to Lithuania at the same time.
Depay’s strike was the eighth goal in the qualifying campaign for the Dutch record goalscorer, whose overall tally for his country is now 55 in 107 internationals.