Argentina fightback denies Northern Ireland quarter-final place at Cerebral Palsy Football World Championships

Argentina progressed to the next round at the expense of Canada after two late goals saw them snatch a draw against Northern Ireland ©CPFWC

Argentina launched a stunning late recovery as they fought back from 3-1 down to earn a crucial point from their match against Northern Ireland as the group phase at the Cerebral Palsy Football World Championships drew to a dramatic close at St George's Park in Burton upon Trent in England.

Goals from Rodrigo Lugrin and substitute Mariano Morana in the closing staged helped cancel out efforts from David Leavy, Ryan Walker and Jordan Walker and snatch second place from the grasp of Northern Ireland.

The late resurgence from Argentina condemned Northern Ireland to fourth place in the group when, for the majority of proceedings, it looked though they would reach the next phase.

The result saw the Argentinians progress at the expense of their opponents, while The Netherlands rounded off their group campaign with a hard-fought 4-1 win over Canada.

The Canadians did take a shock lead, however, as Sam Charron coolly slotted home to get his side off to the perfect start.

It proved to be a mere fleeting moment of joy for Canada, though, and they were soon reduced to six men after Matt Brown was sent-off for fouling Iljas Visker when the Dutchman was through on goal.

They continued to defend resolutely until their resilience was broken when Visker turned his marker and arrowed a shot into the net.

That seemed to deflate the Canadians, who still harboured hopes of reaching the quarter-finals, and Peter Krooij edged The Netherlands ahead soon after the restart.

The points were then sealed late on as Jeroen Saedt and Lars Conijn added a further two in stoppage time to cement the Dutch team’s place at the top of Group D.

Image title — Brazil finished their group stage campaign in dominant fashion by hammering the United States 6-0 ©The FA

Elsewhere, Brazil finished the group stage in style by hammering the United States 6-0 to set up a meeting with South American rivals Argentina in the next round.

The Americans had already qualified for the quarter-finals and they will go on to face The Netherlands.

The other match in Group C was a dead rubber between the group’s two bottom sides and it was comfortably won by Scotland, who cruised to a 5-0 victory against Venezuela.

The tournament is due to continue on Tuesday (June 23) with the classification matches between the teams who failed to reach the next round before the last eight stage begins the following day.

Russia will play England while Ukraine clash with the Republic of Ireland in the other two quarter-finals.