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12th October 2024
09:58am BST
Ireland U21 boss Jim Crawford has described the devastation of his players after a controversial refereeing decision allowed Norway to score an equaliser in the 93rd minute of last night's UEFA Euro U21 qualifier in Cork.
Deep into stoppage time, the Boys in Green looked to have secured their play-off spot, but a moment of madness in the Ireland half flipped the game on it's head.
FT 🇮🇪 1-1 🇳🇴
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 11, 2024
Agony for Ireland. They are denied victory at the death, after huge home shouts for a foul on Anselmo García MacNulty in the build-up.
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As Irish defender Anselmo Garcia MacNulty attempted to defend the ball from the approaches of Sindre Walle Egeli, the Norwegian clearly pulled McNulty's jersey and took control of possession.
Despite the cacophony of cries from the home fans at Turners Cross, the referee allowed play to go on, allowing Andreas Schjelderup to put the ball past Gateshead goalie Tiernan Brooks.
The resulting 1-1 draw means that Crawford's men will now have to travel to Trieste to face Group A leaders Italy on Tuesday needing a win to seal automatic qualification.
A defeat on the other hand, coupled with a Norwegian win over Turkey would see the Irish squad miss out on the consolation prize of a play-off place.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game, Crawford called on his squad to bounce back in time for Tuesday's task but acknowledged that there was a sense of devastation.
Republic of Ireland U21 boss Jim Crawford tells @darrenfrehill there were "tears in the dressing-room" after a 1-1 draw agnst Norway that leaves their Euros hopes in the balance. Ireland need a result in Italy on Tuesday, but Crawford is confident they can go again. #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/SrLqORPhSX
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 11, 2024
"It's a tough one to take. We've got tears in the dressing room, we've got a lot of disappointed players," he said.
"But the thing is we need to recover quick. We need to get ourselves mentally prepared now because we've got a huge game against Italy.
"The last game we played against Italy here, they scored in similar circumstances. It's just something that we need to get better at, seeing out a game."
On the controversial decision not to award Ireland a free kick in the build up to Norway's equaliser, Crawford added: "It's just hugely disappointing because they weren't causing us too many problems.
"Sometimes we left the outside channel a little bit open when we jumped too soon which caused minute problems but nothing that we didn't take care of.
"You're going into injury time and we're conceding again, so it's a tough one to take."
Italy U21s vs Republic of Ireland U21s kicks off at 5:30pm on Tuesday evening.
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