Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill gave a damning review of the referee’s performance during their 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat to Germany – labelling the decision to only add two minutes of second half injury time as “ridiculous”.

O’Neill’s men produced another impressive performance as an exciting young squad continues to take huge strides, holding their own against one of world football’s powerhouses.

Monday’s defeat leaves automatic World Cup qualification unlikely with both the Germans and Slovakia sitting three points ahead of Northern Ireland with two Group A matches left to play.

While proud of the showing produced by his side, O’Neill was also left frustrated with Spanish official Jesus Gil Manzano on a number of occasions, including when the board showed just two minutes of added time – despite seven substitutions being made between teams.

placeholder image — Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill confronts the referee after Germany defeat. (Photo by Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker Press)

"It's the rules, we can’t do anything about it (Ethan Galbraith now being suspended),” said O’Neill. “I'm surprised the ref didn't book more with the way he refereed the game, but that's another matter.

“I think he had three (minutes of added time) in the first half...I'm not sure how many substitutions there were, but to add two minutes, I thought it was ridiculous, to be honest.

"Look, I'm not going to go into it, but we weren't happy with the referee’s performance on the night. I thought he was over-fussy.

"All the big decisions were right, if I'm honest. Trai just play, I'm not sure who it is, but we just play him on by Trai’s back leg, and Paddy's (McNair) just a step too far and we're offside.

"So those decisions were right, but a lot of the other stuff was fussy and unnecessary.”

Northern Ireland will round out their qualifying campaign next month with a trip to Slovakia before hosting Luxembourg at Windsor Park.

They’re still in contention to top the group – O’Neill’s side will need other results to go their way for that to become reality – but the Northern Ireland boss, who marked his 100th game in charge, feels there needs to be a sense of realism around overall expectations.

"We're a pot three team, so there has to be a sense of realism, right?” he added. “First of all, the idea that we should expect to be in first spot...we've not been to the World Cup since 1986, so let's bring things down a little bit.

"This is a young team. We knew tonight if we could win the game we'd be in a really good position for us to maybe achieve something amazing.

"That would be difficult for us now, we would need results...we need probably, you know, four points in the last two games to be in a strong, very strong position.

"But we have to believe, having beat Slovakia at home, that we can go there and get the right result and hope that Germany now can take care of business at home when they play Slovakia at home.”