Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
From the start we failed to show our AGGRESSION
RECORD-BREAKING SKIPPER DISAPPOINTED WITH DISPLAY
NORTHERN Ireland captain Steven Davis was left swapping F-words as a potential fairytale ended in frustration at the Ennio Tardini Stadium.
Davis drew level with former England star Peter Shilton’s British caps record of 125 appearances for his country against Italy in Parma.
It was a remarkable milestone for the veteran Rangers midfielder (inset) who made his debut in 2005 and has played under four national managers.
But a special night ended in defeat as Domenico Berardi and Ciro Immobile wrote the headlines of the opening chapter of this year’s World Cup qualifiers.
“I take huge pride in equalling the record, but unfortunately it didn’t have the fairytale ending I would have liked,” said Davis. “It’s disappointing and we maybe weren’t as aggressive in the first half as we were in the second, but we’ll take positives from the game and move forward.”
With Italy cruising 2-0 at the break, the floodgates might have opened, but Northern Ireland produced a dogged, front foot display in the second period.
Gavin Whyte, Michael Smith and Paddy Mcnair – who blazed over three minutes from the end – all had chances to beat AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnamurra.
Davis said: “I think we came out and showed our character in the second half, really had a go at Italy, gambled a little bit and created some big chances.
“If you take one of them, it becomes a little bit edgy for them in the final minutes of the game.
“On another night we might have taken some of those chances, but the important thing is that we were able to create chances at a difficult place to come.
“There are definitely things we can work on, particularly from the first half, but there are also positives we can take into the rest of the campaign.”
Northern Ireland face USA in a friendly at Windsor Park on Sunday, before facing Bulgaria in another Group C fixture in Belfast on Wednesday night.
Davis knows the importance of a win against the Bulgarians who are also looking to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat to Switzerland in Sofia yesterday.
“Listen, we have to be realistic,” said Davis. “We have to win games like this if we want to give ourselves an opportunity to try and do something in this group.
“That will be our mentality going into the Bulgaria game on Wednesday.”
We really had a go in the second half..