Great effort from the Northern Irish lads tonight; the Swiss missed some sitters but in the end NI went out to that horrible penalty decision.

Bit like the Thierry Henry handball goal for France that stood against the Republic years back.

Or the chalked off 'never-crossed-the-line' goal that Frank Lampard scored against the Germans.

Or the fricking Maradona 'hand of God.'

Come to think of it, is it only the English and the Irish that get screwed by the officials in FIFA competitions?

Who won?

Was 0-0

Didnt Ireland get paid a few million following the Henry handball incident or am i imagining that?

I reckon Northern Ireland must have slipped that Swiss centre forward a few quid. To be fair if he had been bribed his finishing was making it look far too obvious. They gave it absolutely everything though and nearly forced extra time, but Switzerland must have been approaching double figures for clear cut chances. It was great to see Pools legend Jordan Jones on the International stage as well, about time.

He's an impartial commentator isn't he, Gerry Armstrong?

I didn't see the game but I did hear that Switzerland were hopeless in front of goal.

Ultimately as they only lost 1-0 on aggregate and the goal was a joke penalty the Irish will probably feel a wee bit peeved at it all. You have to do all you can to take it out of the ref's hands though and I don't think they've really been good enough over the two legs. They certainly weren't in the first leg.

They played much better last night and gave it a right go, and Swiss got more nervous as the game went on. Gerry Armstrong reckoned Northern Ireland dominated the second half though, they were on the front more but at the same time should have concede five or six. It was a cracking game enhanced by an old fashioned mud bath pitch.

No Italy at the world cup either. The first time in my lifetime that that's been the case.

With the exception of Croatia all 7 European teams in the playoffs have looked pretty poor IMO.