Basel: Switzerland and Croatia made it into the 2018 World Cup Finals despite being held-off by the respective opponents for goalless draws at different venues, Sunday.
Switzerland scraped into their fourth finals in a row 1-0 on aggregate, after being held at home by a valiant and workmanlike Northern Ireland who came desperately close to forcing extra-time.
Elsewhere, Croatia held Greece to a 0-0 draw at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in their play-off tie.
The Swiss Sunday were again indebted to Rodriguez, whose controversial penalty in the first leg in Belfast Thursday turned out as the decider, when he cleared a goalbound header from Jonny Evans off the line in stoppage time as Northern Ireland pressed for an equaliser.
Switzerland, boasting a much more illustrious and talented line-up, could have done it in style as they dominated the first hour but squandered a hatful of chances. Instead, on a slippery pitch which cut up badly, they relinquished control for the final half hour and were forced onto the back foot, fraying the nerves of the home crowd.
“We’ve gone toe-to-toe with a very good side and it was decided by a really poor decision, a penalty that should never have been made,” said Northern Ireland manager Michael O‘Neill.
Forward Haris Seferovic was the biggest culprit and was jeered off by the home crowd when he was substituted by Breel Embolo. After failing to muster a shot on target in the first leg, Northern Ireland forced Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer into action after only three minutes when he tipped over a 25-metre shot by Chris Brunt over the bar.
Seferovic glanced a free header wide from Xherdan Shaqiri’s cross and shot wide of the near post when he was released by Steven Zuber as the Swiss began to take control.
On the other hand, having done the hard work four days ago by triumphing in the first leg in Zagreb, Croatia finished the job comfortably against a much-improved Greek team, who were full of attacking intent and tenacious tackling.
For the first 30 minutes Greece were in control. Greece came close to scoring four minutes before half-time when a cross from Kostas Mitroglou found midfielder Zeca, who headed the ball in front of the Croatian goalmouth, only for goalkeeper Danijel Subasic to tip the ball away with Panagiotis Retsos ready to head in.
But the visitors nearly put the tie to bed when a left-footed blast by Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic hit the post in the 43rd minute, after Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic had earlier curled a free-kick over the crossbar.
Greece continued to enjoy more of the ball in the second period but when it came to finishing off an attack, either a pass would go astray or a defender would step in.
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