DUNDALK DEFENDER ANDY Boyle believes the contentious penalty awarded in tonight’s Champions League play-off first leg swung the tie in Legia Warsaw’s favour.
The game, which finished 2-0 to the Polish champions, was scoreless when German referee Deniz Aytekin awarded the away side a penalty on 56 minutes after a strike by Steeven Langil came off the arm of Boyle.
Replays showed that the decision was an extremely harsh one and the man involved agreed.
“It hits my hand but it was behind my back so I don’t really know what you’re supposed to do with your arm in that situation,” Boyle said afterwards.
It’s a difficult one to take and that swings the game in their favour. The goal gave them a bit of impetus and knocked us back for ten or 15 minutes, but I thought overall we deserved something out of the game.”
“It was never really a 2-0 game,” he added. “It’s disappointing to be beaten by that margin.
“We put in a good performance so we should definitely be coming away with at least a draw from it.”
Dundalk head to Warsaw for Tuesday’s return leg needing to score three unanswered goals, but Boyle insists getting a result is still achievable.
“It’s a massive blow as 1-0 is obviously better than 2-0, but we’re still in the tie,” he added. “We did it in Hadjuk Split (in 2014) and we don’t think this is dead.”
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