Bulgaria game a must-win for Baraclough
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IAN BARACLOUGH was left frustrated as Northern Ireland’s winless run continued with a friendly defeat to the United States at Windsor Park.
With Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria\ looming large, Northern Ireland suffered an all-too-familiar outcome in Belfast as a positive performance went unrewarded, with goals from Gio Reyna and Christian Pulisic putting the Americans in charge before Niall McGinn’s excellent late strike.
Baraclough is yet to win inside 90 minutes after 10 games in charge – his only victory the penalty shoot-out against Bosnia last year – a run that he said must end on Wednesday if his side are to have realistic hopes of reaching Qatar 2022.
“I hate losing games of football,” Baraclough said. “I’ll take the flack off the players, that’s not a problem, and what is written is not a problem. I know we’re going in the right direction, getting together and integrating a good group of players.
“It’s something you’ve got to be patient with at times, but if we’re not counting Bosnia then I want to get that first victory.”
The Bulgaria match may only be the second game of the qualifying campaign, but it has been described as a “must-win” game and Baraclough did not argue with that description.
“I’ve gone on record before and said that if we want to be in the top two, we have to win games like Bulgaria at home,” he said. “That’s no disrespect to Bulgaria, but we don’t want to be going into September, the next time we play, having not recorded a victory in the first two games and then having to chase it. We’d probably have to go and beat the Swiss twice, so [a win] would relieve some of the pressure.”
After the positive signs showed in the second half of the defeat to Italy, there was again much to be encouraged by as a youthful side featuring 10 changes were on top before Reyna’s deflected strike with half-an-hour gone.
They fell further behind just before the hour when Pulisic scored a disputed penalty, with replays showing Dan Ballard got a touch on the ball before bringing down the Chelsea forward.