Leeds United's Stuart Dallas left 'devastated' with Northern Ireland as Liam Cooper and Gjanni Alioski make Euro 2020 history

Stuart Dallas has admitted it is hard to find the right words after being left devastated by Northern Ireland's failure to qualify for next summer's delayed Euro 2020 tournament.

Ian Baraclough's men were defeated 2-1 in extra-time of their play-off with Slovakia at Windsor Park on Thursday night.

Michal Duris bagged a winner for the visitors after Milan Skriniar's late own goal at the end of normal time hauled the hosts back into the game and cancelled out Juraj Kucka's opener.

Northern Ireland were knocked out of the quadrennial tournament by Wales in 2016 after making history by reaching the last-16 in France.

Hopes, though, were dashed in Belfast of any potential repeat as Dallas and his team-mates fell at the final hurdle of the qualification process.

"It's hard to put into words," Dallas said post-match.

"It's a huge disappointment for us. The boys are devastated. We left everything on the pitch. We knew what type of game it was going to be but we're devastated.

"We left everything out there and that's all we can ask for. That's one thing about this group, we give everything. Unfortunately tonight it just wasn't enough."

Asked about how the Northern Ireland squad would pick themselves up in the wake of the defeat, he said: "We have to find something in the group now to go again.

"This is a special group of players. We've had some really good memories together and we have to rally around each other now.

"It's going to be hard to lift the group, because of how big the game was and the magnitude of it. We're disappointed but we have to find something within ourselves.

"There's plenty left but there's no getting away from the fact that it is a huge disappointment. We thought we could win.

"Nobody will chuck in the towel. It's hurting and it will hurt for a while but we don't turn our backs."

Elsewhere, Whites captain Liam Cooper was an unused substitute as Scotland ended 22 years of hurt by qualifying for the tournament next summer.

Steve Clarke's side defeated Serbia on penalties in Belgrade following a nail-biting affair with goalkeeper David Marshall saving Aleksandar Mitrovic's decisive penalty.

Gjanni Alioski also made history with North Macedonia as his nation qualified for the competition for the first time with a 1-0 win over Georgia.