The Republic of Ireland were knocked out of the European Under-17 Championships in controversial circumstances on Tuesday evening.
After playing out a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands at Chesterfield’s Proact Stadium, the Irish were faced with a penalty shoot-out to see who would progress to the semi-finals, where England lay in wait.
Norwich City’s Adam Idah missed Ireland’s first spot-kick, with the following four players for the Dutch and for the Irish all scoring with theirs.
Daishawn Redan then stepped forward, knowing his spot-kick would win the clash for the Dutch.
However, the Chelsea starlet saw his effort saved by Jimmy Corcoran.
Alas, for the Irish, referee Zbynek Proske judged Corcoran (correctly) to have been well off his line when making the save.
The official then, somewhat surprisingly and rather harshly, booked Corcoran for the infringement and with the youngster already on a yellow, the distraught teen was dismissed.
Centre-half Oisin McEntee was forced to take over goalkeeping duties but Redan coolly fired home the retaken penalty to put the Netherlands through to the last four.
Ireland senior team boss Martin O’Neill, who had been watching in the stands with his No. 2 Roy Keane, was incensed by the decision and confronted the ref on the pitch.
Here’s the whole bizarre, dramatic and highly contentious episode in full…
Ireland have been eliminated in bizarre, controversial fashion at the U17 Euros after goalkeeper Jimmy Corcoran was shown a second yellow card for moving off his line too early during the penalty shootout https://t.co/O48xsGehPh pic.twitter.com/yroYmS84ca
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) May 14, 2018
Proper penalty drama, that, but a painful and rather harsh way to exit for the young Boys in Green.