Xherdan Shaqiri ‘surprised’ at controversial penalty award against Northern Ireland

Xherdan Shaqiri admits he was „surprised“ referee Ovidiu Hategan awarded Switzerland a penalty for an apparent handball in their controversial World Cup play-off win over Northern Ireland.

Shaqiri’s first-time volley struck Corry Evans in the box on 58 minutes and Ricardo Rodriguez converted the resulting spot-kick to give the Swiss a 1-0 advantage from the first leg at Windsor Park.

Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neil said he was bewildered by the decision and Shaqiri did not appeal for the penalty, while several of his team-mates did.
The Stoke forward said: „I was surprised also that the referee gave a penalty. I don’t know what happened in this situation.

„It’s difficult to say after the game. I didn’t see the position from where I was. I tried to shoot and someone blocked my shot. I will need to see it again but the referee gives the penalty and this is football.
„The other players appealed but it was difficult to see what happened.“

Switzerland were arguably the better side for most of the game and Shaqiri believes their opponents „did not do enough“ to get something from the first leg.
„I’m very pleased with the performance. I know how tough it is to play here, so many teams have struggled here before,“ he said.

„I’m very proud of the team, that we took maybe the best result that we could get here. It was a clean sheet and we scored once; that’s perfect for us.

„I think Northern Ireland didn’t do enough to score because we played very well. We kept the ball for 90 minutes and we had more possession, we tried to create more chances and in the end we deserved to win.“Euro Soccer Bonus

Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.

This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.

The maximum bonus that you can receive is €100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.

If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:

Bet Type Bonus

14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus €100,000 or currency equivalent. Euro Soccer Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.

If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.

If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.

Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.

In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.

All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.

bet365 reserves the right to amend, cancel, reclaim or refuse any promotion at its own discretion.