NORTHERN FURY Ref blunder puts Swiss in driving seat
LOOK, on a scale of one to Thierry Henry it wasn’t the worst injustice we have ever seen in a World Cup qualifier. The best team won and there is still 90 minutes of football to come.
But the penalty that leaves Northern Ireland with a small mountain to climb in Switzerland did appear extraordinarily harsh.
Michael O’Neill’s team might not have deserved victory but they didn’t deserve this: an impulsive call by referee Ovidiu Hategan that penalised Corry Evans for flinching in the face of a powerful shot by Xherdan Shaqiri.
Evans didn’t move his arm towards the ball — it is doubtful he even saw it coming, having turned his face away slightly. It struck him high, upper arm at best and from relatively close range. There were no appeals from the Swiss and Northern Ireland were astonished when Hategan pointed to the spot.
That he booked Evans, who will miss the return leg, merely added insult to injury. Much like the fact Hategan had earlier allowed the lively Stuart Dallas to be as good as kicked out of the game.
Ricardo Rodriguez stepped up for the penalty, stuttered his run in the modern style, sent Michael McGovern the wrong way and finished expertly into the corner.
No-one can argue that Switzerland were not worth their win but it was a pity to see it achieved through injustice.
It will be desperately difficult to overturn even such a slender disadvantage on Sunday. Switzerland have a class that Northern Ireland lack; they are the sum of some very well-oiled parts, rather than a team that surpass expectations almost every time they play, like O’Neill’ s men.
Having absorbed Switzerland’s pressure for most of the game, they enjoyed their best spell once stung by the penalty after 58 minutes. They are a spirited lot, have no doubt of that, and Switzerland would be foolish to think them incapable of springing a surprise.
Even with their tails up, Northern Ireland found Switzerland tough to break down. In the 71st minute, a Chris Brunt free-kick found Josh Magennis but he steered his header wide of goal.
That aside, they were largely kept at arm’s length. Brunt had a free-kick go wide after Kyle Lafferty was fouled and there were a couple of fanciful appeals for penalties, but the damage was done.
Hategan was in no mood to balance out his poor judgements and if Northern Ireland are to reach Russia, they will have to do it the hard way.
It was the biggest match in Belfast in 36 years and the fear on such occasions is always that players will be overwhelmed.
Northern Ireland were not fazed. Switzerland had the best of the first half, true, but that is hardly surprising.
What was heartening was Northern Ireland’s resistance. Not just at the back, where Jonny Evans was outstanding, but through the counter-attacking impetus of Dallas, wide on the left.
The Leeds man took a fearful battering from Stephan Lichtsteiner and others but kept coming back for more.
Indeed, he drew first blood of the night — skipping down the flank on five minutes and forcing a brutal challenge from Fabian Schar, which earned an early booking. At a different time in the match, who knows?
It wasn’t the last hit Dallas received on the night. They took their toll, sadly, and in the 52nd minute he succumbed to injuries and was replaced by Jamie Ward.
From that bright opening, Switzerland’s class started to show.
This is a team that won all bar one of their qualifying games — away to European champions Portugal — and were only eliminated from the last World Cup by Argentina in a very close game.
Where Northern Ireland have players from Millwall and Blackburn, Switzerland take from Juventus, AC Milan and Arsenal.
It is to Northern Ireland’s credit that Switzerland rarely got in behind them and were reduced, mainly, to efforts from range.
In the tenth minute a cross from Rodriguez found Blerim Dzemaili and his shot was blocked bravely by Jonny Evans whose nose took the impact and leaked blood as a result. The ball fell to Granit Xhaka whose shot from outside the area flew over the bar.
Just two minutes later, a rerun. The cross was from Steven Zuber this time but Xhaka seized on it again, only to send his shot with the same trajectory.
Then came Switzerland’s best chance of the half, made unsurprisingly by Shaqiri.
His lovely pass found Haris Seferovic in the middle, only for the effort to be thwarted by McGovern at full stretch in goal.
The second half started with Shaqiri at his most dangerous.
A curling shot after only 46 seconds came very close to giving Switzerland the advantage — as did a cross that flashed across the six-yard box soon after, with Seferovic unable to finish.
Efforts from Northern Ireland were rare. A Chris Brunt corner was met by his West Bromwich team-mate Jonny Evans but headed over and shortly before half time Dallas floated a chip but missed at the far post.
It will be hard to reverse this result. NORTHERN IRELAND (4-5-1): McGovern 7; McLaughlin 6, McAuley 6.5, J Evans 7, Brunt 6; Magennis 5.5, Norwood 6, Davis 6.5, C Evans 6 (Saville 66min, 6), Dallas 6 (Ward 52, 7); Lafferty 5.5 (Washington 78, 6). Booked: C Evans. Manager: Michael O’Neill 6. SWITZERLAND (4-2-3-1): Sommer 6; Lichtsteiner 6.5, Schar 6, Akanji 6, RODRIGUEZ 8; Zakaria 6, Xhaka 6.5; Shaqiri 7, Dzemaili 7 (Frei 83), Zuber 6.5 (Mehmedi 87); Seferovic 6 (Embolo 77). Scorer: Rodriguez 58 pen. Booked: Schar. Manager: Vladimir Petkovic 7. Referee: Ovidiu Hategan (Romania) 5. Attendance: 18,269.