Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk has caused uproar by publicly admitting that he felt like killing Howard Webb after the English referee awarded the injury-time penalty that led to Austria's last-gasp equalizer at Euro 2008.

Tusk's admission was at best insensitive considering that Webb has received death threats of the controversial decision, which Uefa have publicly backed as being correct.

"As the prime minister I have to be balanced and collected," said Tusk. "But last night I was speaking very differently about the whole thing, I wanted to kill.

"Referees make mistakes and this was an obvious error that harmed us all. I thought it would have been better if we had lost in the first half when Austria had their chances and not after 93 minutes due to an obvious mistake."

The controversial late penalty award, when Mariusz Lewandowski grabbed a handful of Sebastian Prodl's shirt and held on until they both tumbled to the deck, saw Poland lose a 1-0 lead seconds from the end against co-hosts Austria.

The result means the Poles must now beat leaders Croatia in their final group game, and hope that Austria can get something out of their game against Germany. Otherwise they will be leaving their first European Championships early.