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.
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.”
