A GREAT CHANCE FOR US TO GROW

BY

MICHAEL O’NEILL feels Northern Ireland’s UEFA Nations League draw will further help his young squad to develop.

They were pitted against Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Belarus in League C Group 3 following the draw in Paris.

The games are scheduled for September, October and November and O’neill (right) feels it will provide a good opportunity to introduce new players into the set-up as well as give more experience to the youngsters already in the squad.

“I think they will be good games for the young squad that we have at the minute,” said the Northern Ireland boss.

“It will be a test for them as part of their development as international players.

“We have to make sure that we develop as a team and try to get ourselves to the next level. I think everyone knows we’ve got a new team, a very young team. We have to develop this group of players going forward, we have to introduce some new players into the group as well.

“The Nations League will give us more opportunity to do that ahead of the World Cup qualifiers next March.”

Luxembourg are top seeds in the group with Northern Ireland’s last meeting with them coming almost two years ago when goals from Josh Magennis, Steven

Davis and Gavin Whyte earned a 3-1 friendly away win.

Conor Washington was on target when Northern Ireland last faced Bulgaria as they went down 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Sofia in October 2021.

You have to go back to June 2019 for the last meeting with Belarus when Paddy Mcnair scored the only goal of the game as the visitors ran out 1-0 winners in a Euro

2020 qualifier.