Masouras winner for Greece jolts Irish hopes as VAR denies Northern Ireland
Giorgos Masouras left the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualification hopes hanging by a thread as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat in Greece.
The Olympiakos midfielder Masouras scored the decisive goal in a victory for Gus Poyet’s side that leaves them with maximum points from their opening two Group B fixtures and Ireland with none heading into Monday’s home meeting with Gibraltar.
Their defender Nathan Collins had earlier cancelled out Tasos Bakasetas’s 15th-minute penalty to give the visitors hope, but in truth Stephen Kenny’s men, who had the defender Matt Doherty dismissed in the dying seconds, were outplayed for long periods at the OPAP Arena in Athens.
Trabzonspor’s Bakasetas, Masouras and Petros Mantalos tormented Ireland throughout and never allowed Josh Cullen, Jason Knight and Will Smallbone the control they needed to feed the men ahead of them.
Kenny had stopped short of dubbing the game a must-win affair in advance, but a difficult group, which also includes France and the Netherlands, has become an all but impossible one.
Northern Ireland had a stoppagetime equaliser ruled out by VAR as a battling display went unrewarded in a 1-0 loss to Denmark in Group H.
Jonas Wind’s goal early in the second half made the difference in Copenhagen as the debutant Callum Marshall saw a goal ruled out for offside after a review that took almost five minutes.
The West Ham youngster flicked the ball in after Jonny Evans headed on a free-kick, but there was despair when the referee, Daniel Stefanski, eventually signalled for offside after his colleague Tomasz Kwiatkowski took an age to review the footage.
Michael O’Neill’s men defended doggedly away to the top seeds in the group but a mistake two minutes after the break proved decisive as Denmark
bounced back from March’s shock defeat to Kazakhstan and put the pressure on Northern Ireland to deliver when the Kazakhs visit Windsor Park on Monday.
Wind pounced when Ciaron Brown got it all wrong trying to deal with Joakim Maehle’s short cross in from the left, slamming the ball home from close range. But O’Neill will take encouragement from how a youthful lineup dealt with the hardest fixture in Group H.
France maintained their perfect run in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2024 as they won 3-0 away to Gibraltar 3-0 to top Group B.
Didier Deschamps’ side earned their third straight win to put them on nine points, three ahead of Greece whom they host on Monday. Bottom-placed Gibraltar will travel to Ireland, with both teams seeking to earn their first points.
France took the lead inside three minutes as Oliver Giroud headed home Kingsley Coman’s cross for his 54th international goal. The Milan striker also became France’s third-most capped player equalling Thierry Henry with 123 appearances.
The captain, Kylian Mbappé, doubled the lead from the penalty spot just before half-time and his pass into the six-yard box in the 78th minute led to an own goal from Aymen Mouelhi to make it 3-0.
“We came here to win, to be as effective as possible, and we only scored three goals, but it could have been five or six,” said Deschamps. “We could have done a lot better, but we know we’ll have a tougher game on Monday … we’re going to have a packed stadium. We’re going to do everything we can to finish the season on a high note on Monday.”