Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill says Champions League final referee Istvan Kovacs should not have allowed Slovakia’s goal or dismissed Dan Ballard in the visitors’ 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat on Friday.
Slovakia had goals by Lukas Haraslin and David Strelec ruled out during the second half before Tomas Bobcek’s 91st-minute winner set the hosts up for a winner-takes-all decider in the race for automatic qualification in Germany on Monday, with Sunderland centre-back Ballard then shown a soft-looking second caution and O’Neill booked after full time.
“It’s clearly a foul on Daniel,” O’Neill told BBC Sport of the goal. “It’s a foul, it isn’t given and the goal stands.
“The yellow card for Daniel is just a joke – when you look at the incident back, it’s poor. We feel a bit aggrieved because of that.”
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Slovakia vs Northern Ireland: O’Neill questions referee
Romanian Kovacs officiated Paris Saint-Germain’s win over Inter in last season’s Champions League final and Atalanta’s victory against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2024 Europa League final, having been the fourth official for Manchester City’s win over Inter in the 2023 Champions League final.
“That’s a top referee – he’s refereed the Champions League final,” said O’Neill, adding that a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check should have taken place over the goal.
“If you watch it back, there’s a blatant push in the back of Daniel Ballard and that’s where the goal has been scored from.
“It’s sore to lose the game as we did because we feel we’ve been beaten by a goal that shouldn’t have stood. That’s what VAR’s there to [resolve].
“The referee didn’t go to check it, so we can’t do anything about it. You have to look at each individual incident; it’s can’t be cumulative.
“It can’t be ‘well I disallowed those two, so I have to be a little bit lenient on that’. You must look at each individual on its own merit – and, on its own merit, that goal should have been disallowed.”
Northern Ireland World Cup qualifying play-off
Northern Ireland will finish third in Group A and will contest a two-legged decider to reach next year’s tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico because they will be one of the highest-placing Nations League group winners in European qualifying.
“We were missing big players but I thought the players who came in did brilliantly,” reflected O’Neill.
“We’re in the play-offs, and that’s the main thing. We came here and wanted to finish second in the group… we have to congratulate Slovakia, who go to Germany with a chance of winning the group.”
The Green and White Army complete their group fixtures at home to Luxembourg, who are yet to earn a point, on Monday (19:45 GMT / 12:45 ET / 09:45 PT).
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2026 World Cup playoffs dates
The top team from each of the 12 European Qualifier groups proceeds automatically to the finals, which will be expanded to 48 teams.
The 12 runners-up in each group will join four Nations League teams in the two-legged play-off ties, which will be drawn from pots based on teams’ records during the campaign and take place on March 26 and 31 2026.
When is the draw for the 2026 World Cup finals?
The draw for the World Cup finals will take place on December 5 2025 at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, with the ceremony starting at 17:00 GMT (12:00 ET/ 09:00 PT).
The tournament runs from June 11 until July 19 2026.
Northern Ireland lineup vs Slovakia
Northern Ireland had a host of injury issues, with first-choice goalkeeper Pierce Charles still unavailable and his brother, midfielder Shea, absent from the midfield with a hamstring problem.
Ali McCann was out with a broken arm and fellow midfielder Ethan Galbraith was banned. Defender Brodie Spencer was out but Liverpool full-back Conor Bradley was back from suspension as captain.
Dion Charles came in for Jamie Reid, with Ruairi McConville in defence and Brad Lyons and George Saville in midfield.
Northern Ireland starting XI: Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Trai Hume, Daniel Ballard, Ruairi McConville, Paddy McNair, Justin Devenny, Conor Bradley, George Saville, Brad Lyons, Isaac Price, Dion Charles
Northern Ireland substitutes: Luke Southwood, Conor Hazard, Jamal Lewis, Terry Devlin, Callum Marshall, Jamie Donley, Paul Smyth, Jamie Reid, Patrick Kelly, Jamie McDonnell, Josh Magennis, Ciaron Brown
