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Mal Donaghy’s young charges have all but bowed out of this year’s competition with this defeat in a rain sodden sticky pitch at the Astra stadium in Romania.

 

The heat had given way to thunder storms and water lying on the pitch made conditions difficult for both sides.

 

Belgium opened the scoring on 19 minutes, a low cross from the right eluded everyone and Jelie Cherlet slotted past Carson, Five minutes later Northern Ireland were level after good work from Mark McAllister down the right, the tenacious Dungannon lad found Andrew Little in the box, the Fermanagh player spun and lashed a left footer past Kevin Goeman in the Belgian Goal.

 

Mark van Geersom’s side retook the lead with ten minutes of the half remaining when Jelle Vossen latched on to a through ball and his shot squirmed under Trevor Carson.

 

The 19s were level just two minutes into the second half, a barnstorming start seen Geoff McGaw guide home from six yards after a deep right wing cross from skipper Robbie Weir.

 

Northern Ireland took control of the game for the first period in the second half, Robbie Weir went close with a 25 yard drive and scorer Geoff McGaw was replaced by Marty Donnelly. A whole series of free kicks and corners followed to no avail and Andrew Little’s one on one with the Belgian keeper ended with the latter making a good save. Little was also unlucky when he was clearly pulled down in the penalty area on 75 minutes only for the Turkish official to wave play on.

 

It was very much against the run of play that the Belgians went in front. A break away on 77 minutes saw Vossen get his second as he headed home. The boys in Green still pressed forwards, Curtis Allen came on for Ryan Berry and Robert Garrett pulled on the armband as he replaced Robbie Weir, still we pressed forwards in search of a third equaliser. Keeper Trevor Carson was a spectator for most of this time although he did move smartly to his right to tip away a rare shot from David Pollet.

 

As we pressed in search of a goal the inevitable happened in the 89th minute when Jelle De Brock just beat Carson to the ball to seal the game.

 

Coach Seamus Heath spoke of the squads disappointment, " The first half was very even in terrible conditions, we gave a spirited performance" he continued " the second half was all us, but we couldn’t find a way through, I thought we were unfortunate not to get a penalty, then two minutes later they score, it was a real sucker punch. At the very end we had committed players forward to try and rescue something and got caught. The boys are a bit down understandably, but we will get them back up and raring to go on Monday."

 

In the groups other match Romania defeated Georgia by 3-0, which means that the host are certainties for the next phase and will be joined by either Belgium or Georgia who meet on Monday.

 

The final game for the boys in Green is against hosts Romania in the Conpet Stadium, Ploiesti on Monday with a 4pm kick off (local time).

 

Northern Ireland Team; 1 Trevor Carson, 15 Ryan Berry, 2 Chris Casement, 4 Ryan Mullan, 5 Scott Gibb, 8 Robby Weir,13 Andrew Little, 14 Mark McAllister, 16 Niall Henderson, 17 Ryan Harpur,18 Geoff McGaw subs 12 Jamie Green, 3 Mark Gallagher 6 Jonathan Flynn, 7 Robert Garrett, 9 Curtis Allen, 10 Michael Carvill 11 Martin Donnelly