Northern Ireland: they were robbed

Day 214 WorldCup2018

If I was Northern Irish I'd be pretty disappointed today. No, not disappointed. That's for somebody who doesn't really care, I'd be angry, really angry, pissed off, upset, sad, followed by an empty, slightly depressed feeling tomorrow. It all comes back to the penalty that wasn't in the first leg of the playoff against Switzerland.

The Swiss for all their dominance only scored the penalty over the two legs. Northern Irish fans would have been disappointed if their team played badly and were comprehensively beaten. Would they have won if it wasn't for the Romanian referee and the penalty that nobody else saw? Maybe not. We'll never know. And, fair enough, the Irish didn't score either. But it might have gone to penalties and then they might have won.

Whatever the "what ifs" I would still be angry because the tie was decided by an inexistent penalty. Injustice. I hate injustice. Lose cleanly and you deal with it. Lose because a referee determines the result and it's hard to take.

Ok, go ahead. Tell me to move on. But this angers me as much as the match that I always go back to as a true measure of sporting injustice; South Korea-Spain, World Cup 2002.

Michael O'Neill, Northern Ireland manager: "We were fighting for our life, fighting for a dream." The dream, gone for another four years. And the manager likely gone too, with the challenge at a Premier League club too tempting to say no to.

Switzerland are off to Russia and so are Croatia, who played out what was, by all reports, a turgid 0-0 draw with Greece. The spectacular 4-1 first leg win made the difference.

Four spots left. Sweden or Italy. Denmark or Republic of Ireland. Honduras or Australia. Peru or New Zealand.

There is a lot of talk about Italy being very close to not making it. They are only 1-0 down after the first leg. It really should be winnable. Should be. But Italy just don't seem to have that confidence of Italy teams in the past, that they can pull out a win when it matters. I sense a big battle tomorrow. Watch it. It could be a classic.