Dundalk 0 Legia Warsaw 2

They have done themselves few favours in the earlier first legs of this campaign to qualify for the Champions League but Dundalk face by far their toughest challenge yet after losing to Legia at Lansdowne Road.

They will, if you like, have to get out of jail in Poland next week. We should have seen it coming. It was, after all, that sort of day.

They will not, after their earlier exploits, travel entirely without hope but the statistics are scarcely encouraging and it would be quite something if, without their suspended skipper Stephen O’Donnell, they saved themselves now.

They will, at any rate, have to improve on their performance here in the period after the penalty when they found themselves chasing the game but only made matters worse by conceding again in the final seconds of added time.

Never outclassed

Stephen Kenny’s men were, to be fair, never outclassed, keeping the ball well for stretches and generally competing as equals. But they rarely looked like scoring themselves and were certainly a distant second best through the spell that immediately followed the goal.

For spells, especially early on, Dundalk were cool and composed despite the scale of the occasion and particularly through the opening stages it was they who moved the ball forward more effectively with Pat McEleney heading over before the Poles had found their feel and Arkadiusz Malarz having to backtrack to keep what looked like a cross from Daryl Horgan out with a sweep of the hand at full stretch.

That, however, was the only save the goalkeeper really had to make and as things settled Legia looked a little too comfortable at times. They ha obvious quality in most departments and certainly Steven Langil out of the right showed the potential to pose problems.

The hosts competed well for the most part and though they lost a little of their early edge as the game wore on they must have felt themselves that they were in with a real shout of giving themselves a lead to defend.

When they instead conceded they could, for a while, count themselves fortunate not to have fallen further behind as their Polish opponents failed to make the most of Dundalk's uncertainty around their own area. In the end, though, it counted for little as the Poles broke in the dying seconds of the game, Tomasz Jodlowiec skipped forward to feed Aleksandar Prijovic who coolly chipped Gary Rogers as the goalkeeper came to block at his feet.

By the end Dundalk looked to have lost to a better side and yet they will do very well not to dwell on the injustice of the way they fell behind for the course of the game was effectively decided by the German referee's decision to give a penalty 56 minutes when Andy Boyle was reckoned to have intentionally blocked Langil's shot from 15 metres out.

That the defender handled was beyond doubt and had the ball struck his outstretched right arm then he would have few complaints. But the idea that he had intentionally blocked the ball with his trailing left seemed, well, a stretch, and Legia were lucky to be gifted a spot kick that Nemanja Nikolic converted low to the left of Gary Rogers immediately after the Hungarian international had blown a very good chance to score from play.

I'm angry," said Stephen Kenny afterwards. "It was an appalling decision. The shot was going wide and Andy Boyle has thrown himself at it but his hand is not in an unnatural position, his arm is close to the body so it's certainly not a penalty and so it's a very poor decision which has changed the game.

“You can’t give big decisions with such huge ramifications on a whim like that. It’s really poor from the referee, really poor. I’m not happy with that.

“That’s cost us the game because we were in control and it gave them a massive surge in confidence. There was a huge shift in things and they went on to dominate the next 15 minutes until we got our control back on the game.

Critical moment

“The following 15 to 20 minutes we were very strong. But that was such a critical moment in the game and it’s certainly not a deliberate handball. Then, the second goal has absolutely killed us. So we have a mountain to climb and we are under no illusions. And we have lost Stephen O’Donnell for a game next week that we probably have to win 3-0. We will give it a real go but the way we have lost here, the penalty decision and conceding that second goal is really hard to stomach.”

They will take some heart from the way they did steady themselves towards the end and Dundalk created a handful of half chances to score what would have been an equaliser through the last 10 minutes, even aside from a penalty claim of their own that Ciarán Kilduff clearly felt should have been given as Igor Lewczuk opted to clatter into the substitute striker under a Paddy Barrett free rather than make any attempt to play the ball.

Ropey refereeing decisions, though, eh. We should have expected that too. It’s been that sort of week.

Dundalk: Rogers; Gannon, Barrett, Boyle, Massey; Shields (Benson, 76 mins), O'Donnell; Mountney (Finn, 64 mins), McEleney, Horgan; McMillan (Kilduff, 80 mins).

Legia Warsaw: Malarz; Broz, Lewczuk, Pazdan, Hlousek; Odjidja (Kopcyyriski , 76 mins); Langil (Alexandrov, 88 mins), Jodlowiec, Moulin, Kucharczyk; Nikolic (Prijovic, 83 mins).

Referee: D Aytekin (Germany).