Northern Ireland qualify for finals, but Scotland lose last-gasp goal to crash out

Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland completed a glorious 3-1 win over Greece at Windsor Park in Belfiast to reach their first major tournament since the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico.

Captain Steven Davis scored twice, sliding home the opener after a well-worked move 10 minutes before half-time, and heading in a corner after Josh Magennis made it 2-0 after the break.

O'Neill's side are now guaranteed a place at Euro 2016 in France as one of the top-two finishers in Group F.

"The players were outstanding," said O'Neill. "Right through the team, magnificent, It's a privilege to be here, I'm proud to stand here as their manager.

"How have we done it? I'm not really sure! The players deserve the ultimate credit. We have confidence and belief which comes from winning games. This shows the potential of this team and of football in Northern Ireland."

Scotland were left looking bewildered after Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski scored with his second goal with the final touch of the match in injury time to earn Poland a 2-2 draw at Hampden Park.

With the Republic of Ireland producing an astonishing 1-0 win over world champions Germany in Dublin courtesy of a Shane Long goal, Scotland would have been up against it to qualify from Group D even heading for the final round of matches on Sunday.

They would have needed a win over Gibraltar and an Ireland win in Poland to finish third in the group ahead of the Poles.

But even that was denied them when an unfortunate deflection came off the hand of Blackburn Rovers defender Grant Hanley in the final minute of injury time, hit a post and rolled along the line before Lewandowski raced in to level on 94 minutes before the referee blew the final whistle.

Lewandowski had scored his side's opening goal on three minutes before a couple of magnificent goals from Matt Ritchie (45) and Steven Fletcher (62) either side of half-time appeared to leave Gordon Strachan's side 2-1 clear and apparently on the cusp of claiming a play-off spot.

But the night quickly turned sour for the stunned Scotland fans when news of Ireland's goal against Germany filtered through before there was more disbelief when a dreadful Poland free-kick somehow trickled through a posse of defenders in a packed home area before winding up in the net via a post and the alert Lewandowski.

Assuming Germany overcome Georgia at home, Poland and Ireland will fight it out for the second automatic qualifying spot on Sunday while Scotland face their dead rubber in Gibraltar nursing the feeling of what might have been with the 1-0 defeat away to Georgia last month proving to be a crippling result in the final analysis.

"You have to hold your hands up and say well done (to Ireland)," said Strachan. "We have played against Poland and Ireland and not been beaten.

"I am hugely disappointed. After working hard for a year and at the end of the year for something like that to happen in the last seconds of a game...that's a year's work. I can't remember us getting anything lucky.

"Anything we got has been earned."

The Scottish Football Associaton want Strachan to lead the national side in the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, but the former Celtic and Southampton manager has to sign a new contract.