Republic of Ireland Under-21 manager Jim Crawford admitted there were "tears in the dressing room" after his side suffered a blow to their UEFA European Championship qualifying hopes after conceding a controversial late equaliser to Norway at Turners Cross.
Deep into stoppage time, the Boys in Green had their hands on a guaranteed play-off spot but Norway levelled in the 93rd minute through Andreas Schjelderup.
However, in the build-up to the goal, Irish defender Anselmo Garcia MacNulty saw his jersey pulled by Sindre Walle Egeli, although the referee allowed play to go on.
The resulting 1-1 draw prevented Ireland from securing a play-off spot with a game to spare. They will now travel to Trieste to face Group A leaders Italy on Tuesday. A win over the Azzurri would seal automatic qualification on head-to-head results but a defeat 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's Darren Frehill, Ireland head coach Crawford called on his squad to bounce back in time for Tuesday's task but acknowledged that there was a sense of devastation.
"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.
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
"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."
"Nothing in life is easy" - A diplomatic Sean Roughan takes Norway's last-gasp equaliser on the chin and insists the Republic of Ireland U21s will head to Italy on Tuesday still believing they can make the play-offs #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/htUBXXC2xA
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 11, 2024
Seán Roughan, who put Ireland in front on 75 minutes, also expressed disappointment and said he and his team-mates were frustrated that they hadn't led by enough to leave themselves free from the mercy of a refereeing call.
"At the end of the day, we should take it into our own hands and get rid of (the ball) really," said the night's Player of the Match.
"But at the end of the day, there's still one game to go and still two points ahead (of Norway). We've got to dust ourselves down now and go ahead and go again. Nothing in life is easy."
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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