Greek substitute Dimitrios Arsenidis snatched a dramatic 95th minute equaliser against the Ireland U17’s at Tallaght Stadium on Friday night.
A second-half goal from Matthew Everitt appeared to have set Colin O’Brien’s side up for an opening win against Greece in the Uefa U17 European championships, however, Arsenidis struck late to steal a point in Dublin despite the linesmen’s flag being raised.
Ireland 1-1 Greece – A hugely controversial end to the game as Greece snatch an injury time goal and a late draw, despite the linesman's flag being raised. #rtesoccer pic.twitter.com/GbuN05RCgq
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) May 3, 2019
It’s the second consecutive tournament where O’Brien’s side have fell foul to a bad refereeing decision after they were dumped from last year’s tournament following a farcical goalkeeper dismissal for coming off the line too early in a penalty shootout.
O’Brien hailed his team’s character last year following their controversial exit.
“These players did the country proud tonight,” he told RTE..
“They have great character, they have been like that all year. They are a super bunch of lads. Probably our quality on the ball could have been a little better at times, but we limited this talented Dutch team, got a great goal and went to penalties, very unfortunate what happened here tonight.”
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