After Jon Walters grabbed a late equaliser for Ireland against Austria on Sunday evening, it looked like there was only going to be one winner.
As Ireland piled on the pressure in search of a second goal, it appeared that the Austrians had cracked when Shane Duffy forced the ball over the line following a Robbie Brady corner.
However, Spanish referee David Fernández ruled that Duffy had fouled Austrian fullback Stefan Lainer.
Speaking to RTÉ after the game, Lainer's fellow defender Sebastien Prodl, who plays for Watford, said that he thought the goal should have stood.
I would attack in the same way. I think a British referee wouldn’t have whistled but lucky for us he was a Spanish referee and he gave a foul.
The introduction of Daryl Murphy with just over 10 minutes of the second half elapsed was key for Ireland. The Austrians were unable to deal with the high balls pumped forward to Muphy and Walters.
Still, Prodl thought that his side should have held out.
I think just in the end of the game we were lucky because they put a lot of pressure on, but we should have played cleverer in the end. We should have won this game.
We were very clever in the first half, I think Ireland had no big chances only shots from the second line. We made it very difficult for them and they got annoyed.
They brought in a second striker and were dangerous with these long balls. It’s not always that you are able to defend these kind of balls. It’s a 50-yard ball into our box and sometime we win the header, sometimes we lose the header.
In the end it was a fair point but we should have been more clinical.
Photo by Cody Glenn/Sportsfile
