Considering the performance that Ireland produced in last night’s game against Portugal, it will be massively frustrating for the team not to come away from Lisbon with a point.

Ruben Neves’ last minute winner was certainly a dagger for Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side, who deserved a draw on the back of what was a resolute defensive performance. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

Ireland did well to limit the hosts in terms of scoring opportunities in this game, something that was not helped by the referee. Slovakian official Ivan Kruzliak produced produced some strange decisions over the course of the 90 minutes, all of which seemed to benefit Portugal.

The penalty given to the Portuguese in the second half was particularly egregious, but that was not Ireland’s only complaint on the night.

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Coleman Says Bruno Moment Summed Up Issue With Ireland Vs Portugal Referee

Ivan Kruzliak seemed to take pleasure from booking some of the Ireland players in Lisbon, while at the same time overlooking some very questionable fouls from the Portuguese.

He also seemed to treat the players differently on the pitch, something that was a bug bear for Seamus Coleman.

Speaking to Off The Ball after last night’s game, he gave a Bruno Fernandes example as one way the two teams did not seem to be operating on a level playing field when it came to the officials.

I found it difficult to speak to (the referee) all night to be honest.

That’s what I thought (because he wasn’t the captain), but he was speaking with Bruno. I challenged him on that, I said ‘you’ll speak to Bruno but not to me’.

Listen, I’m sure he was doing his best, but it was frustrating at times for us tonight trying to understand some of the decisions.

Seamus Coleman was not the Ireland captain for last night’s game, with Nathan Collins taking the armband. While referees can sometimes only communicate with the designated captains, he seemed to have no issue making an exception for the Portugal players.

Considering the way the game was officiated, it is all the more impressive that Ireland came as close as they did to securing what would have been a famous result.

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