Managed by Linfield boss, David Jeffery, the Northern Ireland side made up of players from the Irish League under the age of 23, lost 2-1 at the Stade Luc Varenne.

Linfield striker Peter Thompson opened the scoring at the start of the second half, volleying home to put the visitors into the lead. However, that leaded just over ten minutes when Gent defender David Hubert equalised for the home side.

The winner came from Benjamin Luton five minutes from time, after the home goalkeeper had been sent off ten minutes before; a disappointing end to a superb performance by the Belgian custodian.

Manager David Jeffrey was "proud" of his Northern Ireland team but ruefully added that they had paid for "lapses of concentration in defence".

"In the first 15 or 20 minutes, they were very quick and very sharp but in the second half of the first half we began to get to grips with things," Jeffrey told BBC Sport.

"We came back again and overall in the second half, I felt we were the better side."

Albert Watson played the full 90 minutes of the game, and in doing so became the first Ballymena United player to earn representative honours since Trevor McMullan in 1995.

Ballymena goalkeeper, Paul Murphy, was an unused substitute in Belgium. Former-United goalkeeper, Dwayne Nelson - now of Dungannon Swifts, filled the number one jersey.

The Northern Ireland side will face counterparts from the Republic of Ireland and Slovakia in the remaining group games.