Davis penalty miss proves costly as O’Neill’s men face play-offs

DAVID MARSHALL admitted he was relieved that the absence of goal-line technology cost Cyprus an early lead in Nicosia.

Georgios Efrem’s strike hit the underside of the bar, bounced over the line and out as referee Harald Lechner allowed play to continue.

Scotland keeper Marshall said: ‘I must admit I thought they’d scored when the ball dropped. In the Championship, they have the watches that tell them straight away if it’s crossed the line but I don’t think he had one.’

Scotland took the lead through Ryan Christie’s stunning 12th-minute strike and, although Efrem levelled in the 47th minute, John McGinn fired the winner six minutes later.

Scotland cannot qualify for Euro 2020 through their group but are guaranteed a second chance in the March play-offs.

A PENALTY miss by captain Steven Davis proved costly for Northern Ireland as their hopes of automatic qualification disappeared at Windsor Park last night.

A goalless draw was enough to send Holland through to Euro 2020 and render Northern Ireland’s final Group C game against Germany in Frankfurt on Tuesday meaningless.

Michael O’Neill’s side have an opportunity to advance through the play- offs i n March, although it remains to be seen if the new Stoke City boss will still be in charge on a part-time basis by then.

It was to Northern Ireland’s credit that they had taken the race for qualification to the final round of fixtures. But conceding in injury-time to Holland and Germany left them needing not only wins but goals against the t wo European powerhouses to progress on a head-to-head basis.

After only three minutes Corry

Evans charged down a clearance kick from Dutch goalkeeper Jasper Cillesen and couldn’t quite turn the loose ball into an open goal, while Josh Magennis glanced a header i nches wide from Paddy McNair’s cross.

It rattled the Dutch but they responded in the 10th minute when Steven Berghuis’s header came back off the bar.

Northern Ireland were still on the front foot, however, and should have gone ahead when they won a penalty after half an hour. Again the chance came from McNair’s right- wing cross, George Saville getting a touch at the near post that struck the hand of Joel Veltman before it hit the post. Cillesen did his best to disrupt Davis’s (left) preparations and the Northern Ireland skipper skied his spot-kick. Holland exerted much more control during the second half and Bailey Peacock-Farrell had to be alert to get down to Ryan Babel’s downward header. Northern Ireland seemed content to wait for an opportunity that never came as O’Neill sent on Michael Smith, Ni all McG inn and Jordan Thompson to little effect. They hardly troubled Cillesen after half-time as their bid for automatic qualification petered out.

PETER SCHMEICHEL’S criticism of Ireland will inspire Mick McCarthy’s side against Denmark tomorrow.

Ireland need to win in Dublin to pip Age Hareide’s side to one of the qualification spots for Euro 2020 in Group D.

But last night manager McCarthy accused the Danes of a lack of respect after Schmeichel, father of Denmark goalkeeper Kasper, described Ireland as ‘so bad’.

‘They don’t regard us with enough respect,’ McCarthy said. ‘I think you should respect your opponent, go and play them and do your best to beat them. But you know, as a player people wound me up, that’s just what it did.

‘It didn’t wind me up to play badly, I played better. See when you make those comments? You have to win then. You’ve got to win if you diss the opposition, and I make a point of never doing it.’