Penalty pain for Davis as North face play-offs
A PENALTY miss by captain Steven Davis proved costly for Northern Ireland as their hopes of automatic qualification disappeared at Windsor Park last night.
A goalless draw was enough to send Holland through to
Euro 2020 and render
Northern Ireland’s final Group C game against Germany in Frankfurt on Tuesday meaningless.
Michael O’Neill’s side have a chance to advance through the play-offs in March, although it remains to be seen if the new Stoke City boss will still be in charge on a part-time basis by then.
It was to Northern Ireland’s credit that they had taken the race for qualification to the final round of fixtures.
However, conceding in stoppage-time to Holland and Germany left them needing not only wins but goals against the two European powerhouses to progress on a head-to-head basis.
O’Neill said it was ‘an incredibly tough double-header’ but, while hope remained, he was determined to go for broke in what could be his farewell game at Windsor Park.
Having pushed the Dutch all the way with a resolute defensive performance before going down 3-1 in Rotterdam last month, Northern Ireland were far more positive in the first half here.
After only three minutes, Corry Evans charged down a kick from goalkeeper Jasper Cillesen and couldn’t quite turn the loose ball into an open goal, while Josh Magennis glanced a header inches wide.
The Dutch responded in the 10th minute when Steven Berghuis’s header hit the crossbar.
Northern Ireland should have gone ahead when they won a penalty after half an hour after Joel Veltman handled in the box.
Cillesen did his best to disrupt Rangers star Davis (pictured, left) and the Northern Ireland skipper skied his spot-kick well over the bar.
Holland exerted much more control over the second half and home No1 Bailey PeacockFarrell had to be alert to get down to Ryan Babel’s header.
Northern Ireland barely troubled Cillesen after half-time as their bid for automatic qualification petered out.