The second of four match-ups still to determine which team is going to the World Cup was between Northern Ireland and Switzerland. The two teams met in Belfast on Thursday, where Switzerland were much better, and eventually grabbed a solid result, as they won by 0-1 on the road. They will now return home for the second leg, where they should be really careful in order to avoid any mishaps. Northern Ireland are much better at home than they are on the road, and they are now in quite a tough spot.
Northern Ireland are not one of the big teams in Europe, but they have made great strides in improving their national team. After a nice run in the EURO CUp last year, Northern Ireland are now in the place of having to fight for a spot in the World Cup. However, they sgould be feeling really hard-done about the way they lost in the first leg, as their opponents were awarded a non-existant penalty kick at the 57th minute. Replays showed that it was not a hand-ball, but even so, Switzerland took the lead through that, and eventually won by 0-1. Northern Ireland failed to record a single shot on target, but even a goal-less draw would have been better than a home loss. They will now travel to Switzerland looking for a strong performance that would give them even the slightest of chances to qualify.
On the other hand, Switzerland might have been awarded a very generous penalty kick, but they were really the better team in the pitch. They were much better than their opponents throughout the whole match, but only 4 of their 15 scoring chances resulted in shot on target. Even so, they did take advantage of a very lucky call from the referee, and they will now bring a strong advantage for the second leg at home. They have a lot of quality players in their roster, and judging by how they did in the qualifiers, they trully deserve to be in the World Cup.