\n<\/p>\n
The loss in the penultimate fixture in the campaign does still damage their hopes of making it to North America, however, as they will enter those play-offs in the lowest group of seeds.<\/p>\n
Slovakia originally thought they had taken the lead in the 56th minute when Lukas Haraslin’s free-kick flew past Bailey Peacock-Farrell, but it was adjudged that Milan Skriniar had obstructed the view of the Northern Ireland goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
Just eight minutes later, they had another strike disallowed by VAR after David Strelec was penalised for handling the ball when finishing from another Haraslin set-piece.<\/p>\n
O’Neill felt that the decisions to rule out the previous efforts played into allowing the late winner.<\/p>\n
“It was a clear push on Daniel Ballard at the corner, two hands in his back,” said O’Neill.<\/p>\n
“The other goals that were disallowed should have been disallowed. The first one was offside, the lines show that clearly, and the second one was handball. <\/p>\n
“You have to look at each incident on its own merit, you can’t go cumulative and referee the last incident differently to how you refereed the other two incidents.”<\/p>\n
Following the winning goal, Ballard was sent off for a second yellow card offence and midfielder George Saville was booked with both players now ruled out of Monday night’s game with Luxembourg through suspension.<\/p>\n
On Ballard’s second yellow, O’Neill said: “The Slovakian dug-out that caused that as much as anything.”<\/p>\n
“The [second] yellow card for Daniel is a joke,” he continued.<\/p>\n
“If you look at it back, it is poor. He is a top referee, he has refereed the Champions League final, he should have disallowed the goal.”<\/p>\n
The victory, which keeps alive Slovakia’s hopes of qualifying automatically for next summer’s tournament, sparked huge celebrations from the hosts with O’Neill describing their reaction as “disappointing”. <\/p>\n
“Everything was on the line for Slovakia. You could tell that by the way their technical area behaved towards the end of the game, which was disappointing.<\/p>\n
“Disappointing for their coach not to shake my hand.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately, we congratulate Slovakia because they can go to Germany and try to win the group.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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