Croatia and Switzerland booked their berths for next year’s World Cup after holding Greece and Northern Ireland respectively to goalless draws on Sunday.
Despite the home side’s brave efforts, however, it was Croatia who came closest to scoring with Ivan Perisic hitting the post in the first half as the visitors qualified with ease for the showpiece in Russia.
No team has overturned a 4-1 first leg deficit at this stage, while the Croatians have now not lost a major tournament playoff match on any of their five occasions.
There were some flashes of danger from Michael Skibbe’s Greece side.
However, despite having more possession, chances were few and far between and they failed to test Croatian goalkeeper Danijel Subasic until the 87th minute with Panagiotis Tachtsidis having his shot saved.
Skibbe shuffled his pack considerably, making six changes after its poor performance in the first leg — three of those came in defence with Giannis Maniatis, Giorgos Tzavellas, and Kyriakos Papadopoulos replaced by fit-again captain Vasilis Torosidis, Kostas Manolas and Panagiotis Retsos.
Competitive
The changes, coupled with a vociferous home crowd inside the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, seemed to work as the hosts looked more competitive, tenacious in the tackle and chasing every lost cause.
For all Greece’s enthusiastic and energetic play, however, Croatia always looked threatening when it managed to get forward, with Perisic, Nikola Kalinic and Mario Mandzukic all causing problems with their movement and slick passing.
Inter Milan midfielder Perisic came closest to a goal when his fierce shot cannoned off Orestis Karnezis’ left post with the Greek goalkeeper well beaten just before half-time.
Greece continued to try and chip away at Croatia but apart from Tachtisidis’ shot, the visitors held on comfortably to ease through.
Controversial penalty
At Basel, Switzerland qualified 1-0 on aggregate, the tie ultimately being decided by the hugely controversial penalty converted by Ricardo Rodriguez in the first-leg in Belfast on Thursday.
It was again indebted to Rodriguez on Sunday when he cleared a goalbound header from Jonny Evans off the line in stoppage time as Northern Ireland pressed for an equaliser.
The results: WC playoffs (second legs): Europe: Switzerland 0 drew with Northern Ireland 0 ( Switzerland won 1-0 on aggregate).
Greece 0 drew with Croatia 0 (Croatia won 4-1 on aggregate) .
