Shaqiri 'surprised' by controversial penalty
Xherdan Shaqiri admits he was "surprised" when the referee awarded Switzerland a controversial penalty for an alleged handball in their World Cup play-off win over Northern Ireland.
Shaqiri's volley struck Corey Evans in the box on 58 minutes and Ricardo Rodriguez scored from the spot to give the Swiss a 1-0 advantage from the first leg of the play-off leg at Windsor Park.
Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill said he was bemused by the decision and while several of the Switzerland players appealed for a penalty, Shaqiri did not.
The Stoke winger 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 throughout the game and Shaqiri doesn't believe their opponents did enough in the first leg to get something from the game.
"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."