The Boys In Green “threw it away” in Ireland v Czechia, former international Liam Brady has said.
A 2-2 draw went to penalties, which the Czech team won in a nailbiting result of 4-3.
For many watching, it was an unjust result - with Ireland dominating play for much of the match.
But they gave away a penalty in the first half, which ultimately cost them the match.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Liam Brady agreed that the first penalty was “unforgiveable”.
“They were never going to score the goal,” he said.
“The Czech player, the ball was gone behind the goal. He wasn't even going to get a shot on target.
“And I don't know what was going through Manning's head, perhaps he panicked a bit.
“Yes, a big mistake by Ryan Manning. We threw it away. We were the best team.”
Troy Parrott of the Republic of Ireland. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.Mr Brady praised the team’s performance in the first half, remarking that they “started off really, really well”.
“Had them on all sorts of problems at set pieces,” he said.
“In fact, our two goals, the penalty came from the set piece and then the own goal from the Czech defender was a set piece as well.”
He added that they continued to play well in the second half as well.
“We weathered the storm, they threw everything at us,” Mr Brady continued.
“But physically, we did really, really well, defending well.
“And then we gave another stupid free kick away over at the corner flag.”
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Out in Prague, reporter Henry McKean described it as the “most spectacular match I had the privilege to be at”, adding that the result had left Ireland fans “hiding under stones”.
“They’re devastated, they’re sick, they’re gutted,” he said.
“But they want to go again and they’ll remember the good times we had along the way.
“And remember, we’ve got Euro 28 just around the corner.”
One woman told Newstalk the result was “tough”, given the team were “really good”.
“It would have been really good to see them go to the World Cup. I think we could have done really well there,” she explained.
“So, yeah, it does make it harder.”
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One man bluntly admitted he was “feeling very bad”.
“It's the worst feeling I've ever had coming out of an Irish international game,” he said.
“Losing on penalties is the worst way to lose a game.”
While one 19 year old said the result had put an end to his dream of seeing Ireland play in the World Cup during his lifetime.
“I thought we had it until the very end and then for it to go down like that was pretty tough,” he said.
