Northern Ireland’s World Cup dream may have been dashed in controversial fashion after Switzerland claimed a 1-0 success in the first leg of their play-off at Windsor Park.
Referee Ovidiu Hategan awarded a penalty for a handball when Corry Evans was struck on the back of the shoulder at point-blank range by Xherdan Shaqiri’s volley as he turned his back.
Ricardo Rodriguez’s successful conversion of the spot-kick proved to be the only goal of the night and leaves the Northern Irish with a mountain to climb in the return leg in Basel on Sunday.
What they said
Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill: “It is staggering to see. The ball clearly strikes Corry on the back and the referee has a clear view of the incident. I thought he had given an offside or something. You could tell even from the Swiss players, there was a reaction of surprise that they had been given a penalty for an incident like that.”
Switzerland boss Vladimir Petkovic: “You could decide it’s a penalty but you can’t cry if it’s not given, it’s not a definite penalty. After all we deserved to win, only because of our lack of finishing do we talk about this penalty.”
Tweet of the match
Star man – Xherdan Shaqiri
The Stoke forward was Switzerland’s biggest threat and it was his strike that allowed Rodriguez to put Switzerland on course for the finals, rightly or wrongly. He laid on a first-half chance for Haris Seferovic with a glorious ball and bent an attempt narrowly over the bar just after the restart as he underlined his quality.
Moment of the match
The hosts were hanging in there when Hategan made a huge call just before the hour mark. Evans got in the way of Shaqiri’s volley from the edge of the area but was adjudged to have handled. Not only did Rodriguez convert the spot-kick to leave Switzerland in charge of the tie, but Evans will miss the second leg through suspension after receiving a yellow card. Coupled with the early decision not to send off Fabian Schar for a wild challenge on Stuart Dallas, Northern Ireland will rightly leave Windsor Park aggrieved.
Slick Swiss
Switzerland displayed their technical ability throughout a tense first leg. With the likes of Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka pulling the strings, it is easy to see how the Swiss had won nine out of nine before being denied an automatic spot in Russia by Portugal in their final group game. Yet despite the chasm in quality, the visitors had been kept at arm’s lengthy by a disciplined Northern Ireland until Hategan’s intervention.
Ratings
Northern Ireland: Michael McGovern 6, Conor McLaughlin 6, Jonny Evans 7, Gareth McAuley 7, Chris Brunt 6, Steven Davis 6, Corry Evans 6, Ollie Norwood 6, Stuart Dallas 6, Josh Magennis 5, Kyle Lafferty 5. Substitutes: Jamie Ward (for Dallas, 52) 6, George Saville (for Evans, 65) 6, Conor Washington (for Lafferty, 77) 6.
Switzerland: Yann Sommer 6, Stephan Lichtsteiner 6, Manuel Akanji 6, Fabian Schar 5, Ricardo Rodriguez 7, Granit Xhaka 7, Denis Zakaria 7, Blerim Dzemaili 6, Steven Zuber 7, Xherdan Shaqiri 7, Haris Seferovic 6. Substitutes: Breel Embolo (for Seferovic, 77) 6, Fabian Frei (for Dzemaili, 83) 6, Admir Mehmedi (for Zuber, 87) N/A.
Next meeting
Switzerland v Northern Ireland (World Cup play-off second leg, November 12).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel