Ulstermen feel hard done by
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic heaped praise on his players after they saw off Greece with the minimum of fuss in their play-off on Sunday to seal a place at the 2018 World Cup.
The impressive Croatians held Greece to a 0-0 draw at the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium in Sunday’s second leg in Athens to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory – making it the fifth time they have qualified for the global showpiece since gaining independence in 1991.
“Congratulations to my players, it was a great game tonight, full of tension, and we’ve achieved what we had set out to do and are going to Russia,” said a delighted Dalic.
“We played a truly awesome game in Zagreb in the first leg, tonight here it was much harder. But it was never important for me who would be our opponents in this play-off, because I was convinced we would win whoever we played against.”
Having done the hard work four days ago by winning 4-1 in Zagreb, Dalic’s team finished the job comfortably against the much-improved Greeks who were full of attacking intent and tenacious tackling but lacked a creative spark up front.
For all the home side’s possession and hard work, Croatia came closest to scoring with Ivan Perišic hitting the post in the first half.
Greek boss Michael Skibbe pledged to continue in his role.
Despite the heartbreak of missing out on Russia, their improvement over the qualification campaign gave the German hope.
“This is a sad day for us and of course it’s difficult, because we have missed out on the World Cup, but I will stay on here,” Skibbe said.
“I’m very happy with the team’s progress over the last 14 months. We have played really well overall in 12 matches, unfortunately we had a real below-par performance in Zagreb and we have paid dearly for that.”
Skibbe pointed to bad luck with injuries to skipper Vasilis Torosidis, Petros Mantalos and Christos Donis, as well as the controversial suspension of Kostas Manolas for the crucial first leg of the play-off, essentially stripping Greece of four of their top players.
“These absences influenced the chemistry of the team, we should not forget that,” he said. –
Europe:
Belgium, England, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Russia (as hosts), Serbia, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Croatia Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
Africa: Asia: North, Central America and Caribbean:
Panama Costa Rica, Mexico,
South America:
Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia
– Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill (above) bemoaned the controversial first-leg penalty that saw his side’s World Cup dream end with a 1-0 aggregate defeat by Switzerland in their play-off on Sunday.
Ricardo Rodriguez’s spot-kick in Belfast last Thursday proved the difference between the two sides, as the Swiss held off some late pressure from the unfancied Northern Irish in the second leg at Basel in difficult conditions after heavy rain.
O’Neill said his players would still feel hard done by, after the decision from Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan to award Switzerland a penalty when Xherdan Shaqiri’s volley struck Corry Evans on the shoulder from point-blank range.
“Ultimately we’ve gone out to a poor decision in the first leg,” he told Sky Sports after the second-leg 0-0 stalemate.
“If it wasn’t for the penalty we’d be playing extra time. The players will be remembered for their performance tonight.
“It’s a very sore way to lose. We have to move on.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the winning goal, which saw Evans have to apologise for his wife’s rant on Twitter in which she called the referee a “Romanian gypsy”, Switzerland were the better side over the two legs as they booked their spot at a fourth straight World Cup.
Vladimir Petkovic’s home team wasted a host of chances in the first half, with striker Haris Seferovic most to blame, but did enough to get over the line as Rodriguez cleared an injury-time Jonny Evans header off the line.
It was only the second time in the qualifying campaign that Switzerland had failed to win, after finishing second to Portugal in Group B despite winning nine of their 10 games. – AFP