Masouras winner for Greece jolts Irish hopes as VAR denies Northern Ireland

Giorgos Masouras left the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualification hopes hanging by a thread as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat in Greece.

The Olympiakos midfielder Masouras scored the decisive goal in a victory for Gus Poyet’s side that leaves them with maximum points from their opening two Group B fixtures and Ireland with none heading into Monday’s home meeting with Gibraltar.

Their defender Nathan Collins had earlier cancelled out Tasos Bakasetas’s 15th-minute penalty to give the visitors hope, but in truth Stephen Kenny’s men, who had the defender Matt Doherty dismissed in the dying seconds, were outplayed for long periods at the OPAP Arena in Athens.

Trabzonspor’s Bakasetas, Masouras and Petros Mantalos tormented Ireland throughout and never allowed Josh Cullen, Jason Knight and Will Smallbone the control they needed to feed the men ahead of them.

Kenny had stopped short of dubbing the game a must-win affair in advance, but a difficult group, which also includes France and the Netherlands, has become an all but impossible one.

Northern Ireland had a stoppage-time equaliser ruled out by VAR as a battling display went unrewarded in a 1-0 loss to Denmark in Group H.

Jonas Wind’s goal early in the second half made the difference in Copenhagen as the debutant Callum Marshall saw a goal ruled out for offside after a review that took almost five minutes.

The West Ham youngster flicked the ball in after Jonny Evans headed on a free-kick, but there was despair when the referee, Daniel Stefanski, eventually signalled for offside after his colleague Tomasz Kwiatkowski took an age to review the footage.

Michael O’Neill’s men defended doggedly away to the top seeds in the group but a mistake two minutes after the break proved