Switzerland manager Murat Yakin feared it was one of his coaches getting a red card in the incident that saw Jamal Lewis controversially sent off in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier.

The incident happened in front of the dug-outs and Yakin admitted to being confused.

“I was surprised,” he said.

“I actually didn’t realise the situation. My staff members were jumping up and getting excited and I thought when the red card was shown it was to one of my staff members and not for the player.

“But overall I don’t think this was decisive for the match. With our performance we controlled the match already.”

In a dramatic start to the match, Switzerland thought they had opened the scoring in the fourth minute through Denis Zakaria before his goal was ruled out for offside after a lengthy VAR review.

After referee Slavko Vincic had sent Lewis off, hard-working Northern Ireland looked like they would make it to the interval at 0-0 before Steven Zuber struck in first-half added time.

Christian Fassnacht added the second in the 91st minute to condemn Ian Baraclough’s men to a defeat that all but ends their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup.

“We were very focused, even after the offside ‘goal’ in the first minutes, we didn’t stop,” continued Yakin.

“We had more pressure, we tried to attack, and maybe the only thing we can say is we didn’t benefit from all of our chances to score. We fought to the end and created more opportunities.”

The defeat for an injury-hit Northern Ireland leaves them six points behind Switzerland, with three matches to play, in the battle for second place in Group C and the play-off place that goes with it.

Baraclough’s side now travel to Sofia to play Bulgaria on Tuesday night before completing their qualifying campaign with home games against Lithuania and leaders Italy in November.

Switzerland are away to bottom side Lithuania on Tuesday night then in November they travel to Italy before hosting Bulgaria in their final match.