When German has the ball Northern Ireland has it all to do

SCORER JOSH SALUTES WORLD CHAMPS BUT SEES POSITIVES

JOSH MAGENNIS believes Northern Ireland showed character to deny Germany a goal fest in last night’s World Cup showdown at Windsor Park.

Die Mannschaft looked destined for a rout when Sebastian Rudy opened the scoring after just 79 seconds and Sandro Wagner added a second in the 21st minute.

But Michael O’neill’s men refused to fold and bagged a late consolation through Magennis after Joshua Kimmich had put the visitors 3-0 up in the 86th minute.

Magennis (below), who headed home a Chris Brunt corner in the 93rd minute, said: “To score against the world champions is massive and I think we created enough to deserve it.

“First half we maybe sat off them a bit and them scoring an absolute worldie after only 79 seconds put our game plan out the window.

“Michael was kind of saying, ‘Do I go for it now or how much do we not go for it’. Because of the calibre of player Germany have, they can open you up at any time.

“It was important after 21 minutes when we were 2-0 down that we didn’t capitulate because for me we were playing the best team in the world.

“It’s hard to take and we’re coming away from it absolutely wrecked. It was a tough game but we’ll dissect it and take positives from the performance.”

With second place in the group already guaranteed, it would take an unlikely series of results to deny Northern Ireland a place in the play-offs for Russia.

But Magennis is keen to finish the campaign on a high in Sunday’s final groop game against Norway at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo.

The Charlton Athletic striker also knows a positive result would go a long way to securing a seeded spot in next month’s two-legged shootout.

He said: “It’s massive to nick a goal against the world champions and important because goal difference could still play a massive part in determining the eight play-off teams.

“We’re on plus 12 now so we know we have to head to Norway, blow off the cobwebs and get back to winning ways.

“It’s been a great campaign so far and we want to top it off with a win in Oslo. It would take some absolute madness to deny us a play-off but mathematically we’re not there yet. To be seeded would give us the chance to go into the play-offs on the front foot, so it would really help our FIFA ranking if we can win on Sunday.

“The only two games we’ve lost in the group so far have been to the world champions so we should take confidence from that. At times we went toe to toe and caused them problems.”