Down in the dumps: Damien Duff and Sean St Ledger look dejected at the final whistle

‘The first goal is our mistake, it was our situation, they kicked us in this moment. I can’t speak about the referee but the opponent was offside [for the second goal].’

Croatia manager Slaven Bilic said: ‘We knew we are a better team but you never know before the match. We played a friendly against them and all those players were all playing but this is different. Everybody thought we were not playing well but we have showed how well we can play.’

Keane led the protests to Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers after he gave the second goal, despite
Jelavic being in an offside position. Replays showed Luka Modric’s shot hit Stephen Ward last, but Trapattoni and the striker were having none of it.

The LA Galaxy striker also said he should have had a penalty when he was fouled from behind by Gordon Schildenfeld before he was replaced by Long, but even he might admit it was clutching at straws.

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