Brighton duo Aaron Connolly and Shane Duffy suffered late heartbreak as Cristiano Ronaldo's brace saw Republic of Ireland lose 2-1 to Portugal in their World Cup qualifier last night.

Connolly started up top alongside Adam Idah, while Duffy started in a back three alongside Dara O'Shea and John Egan.

Ireland’s hopes of springing a shock appeared to have been dealt a blow within 10 minutes when midfielder Jeff Hendrick tripped Bruno Fernandes as he tried to retrieve an underhit pass inside his own penalty area and Slovenian referee Matej Jug pointed to the spot.

After a lengthy VAR check, Jug stuck to his initial decision – but 19-year-old goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu dived full length to his right to stop Ronaldo’s penalty.

Ireland then got another slice of luck as Diogo Jota headed against a post with 28 minutes gone.  Stephen Kenny’s men then took a shock lead on the stroke of half-time when John Egan climbed to meet Jamie McGrath’s corner and glanced his header across Rui Patricio and into the bottom corner.

Connolly, who had posed a threat on the counter with his pace was replaced by James McClean in the 72nd minute.

Duffy and Egan had limited Ronaldo to very little chances during the game, but in the 89th minute, he headed Goncalo Guedes' dinked cross into the bottom corner to establish himself as international football’s leading goalscorer with his 110th for his country.

Albiion midfielder Jayson Molumby, who joined West Brom on a season long-loan last week, came on in the 90th minute to replace McGrath as there was five minutes of stoppage time added.

But with the final kick of the game Ireland's hopes of picking up their first point of their qualifying campaign were dashed as Joao Mario's cross was headed in by no other than Ronaldo.

However, Kenny found it hard to believe his side had lost the game after coming so close to handing him his first competitive victory in 10 attempts.

He told Sky Sports: “We’re absolutely hugely disappointed. The players have been exceptional tonight overall in their efforts.

“The game in the first half went as we would have wanted – we were able to counter-attack with Aaron Connolly and Adam Idah’s pace.

“We controlled passages of the game and restricted Portugal’s chances and scored, of course and we had a couple of chances to go two up.

“Portugal were very good second half. It was tough for us second half. We had to dig in and we defended heroically.

"We just can’t believe that we’ve lost it because we should have won it in the end. We were only two minutes away.

“The players were magnificent overall, their efforts were really something to be proud of.”