Northern Ireland's angry manager Michael O'Neill berated his side after their "unacceptable" 3-2 defeat by Luxembourg.

Mathias Janisch grabbed a late winner for the home side at Stade Josy Barthel and O'Neill accepted the result was fair, even though Gareth McAuley appeared to have earned the visitors a draw after Martin Paterson's opener was overhauled by Aurelien Joachim and Stefano Bensi.

Luxembourg had won just three World Cup qualifiers in their history before this match, the last of them at home in 1972, but were full value for the three points as Northern Ireland turned in a turgid display.

O'Neill told Sky Sports 1: "It was very poor, we were disappointing from start to finish. We were fortunate to go ahead and we didn't learn from that, we lost a poor goal before half-time. Then when we get ourselves level, we lose another from a set-piece. The performance was unacceptable, the energy and work rate was not at the level required."

The result followed a creditable performance against Portugal, when Northern Ireland led 2-1 until Kyle Lafferty's dismissal and Cristiano Ronaldo's rapid-fire hat-trick turned the game around.

"This is a team that needs to find ways to win games," O'Neill continued. "We've had a lot of plaudits in the last couple of games but the reality is it counts for little when you come and play like tonight. It's OK lifting it for Portugal and Russia but we needed that tonight. When we're down gears we're average.

"In these games when we're expected to win, we need to bring the basic ingredients to win a football match. We didn't manage the game well when we were on top and we didn't deserve anything from the game. Luxembourg were the better team on the night."