Own goal sends Hungary packing from World Cup

Football can be a cruel game, especially for those players unfortunate enough to score an own goal.

So spare a thought for Hungarian defender Attila Talabar, who was left heartbroken after putting the ball in the wrong net to send his side packing from the U/20s World Cup in New Zealand.

Playing against Serbia in a round of 16 match, Talabar was inconsolable after miscuing his attempt to block a low cross to score an own goal.

The scores were locked at 1-1 in the final minute of extra time when the young defender lunged at the ball, only to watch as it skewed off his foot, over the head of goalkeeper Gyorgy Szekely and into the goal.

The strike sent Serbia into the quarter-finals to play the USA on Sunday and left Talabar weeping on the ground on his hands and knees.

His only consolation was that it happened at an U/20s World Cup in front of several hundred fans, rather than on the big stage, before a worldwide audience of tens of millions of football fanatics.

Either way it was still a harpoon to the heart.