Northern Ireland beat Ukraine!
Gamble pays off as Northern Ireland storm past Ukraine
THERE is little worse in football than heading home from a major tournament feeling that you haven’t performed. Failing is one thing but doing so without presenting your true face to the world is quite another.
After Northern Ireland’s opening defeat by Poland, that must have haunted manager Michael O’Neill on his daily runs through the vineyards near his team’s hotel in Lyon.
Having fought so hard to get to France, the manner of Irish submission against Poland, the meekness of it, must have shocked him. Defeat here could have put his players out of Euro 2016 by the end of the game between Germany and Poland that followed.
Welcome to tournament life. When you are here you exist on a knifeedge. You rely sometimes on others as well as yourself. The balance can tilt dramatically on the back of just one goal, one mistake.
So O’Neill’s solution was to gamble. His answer was to make changes in order to bring about change. Some gamble, too, for a manager who by his admission really hasn’t got enough playerslayers of the requisite quality to make up a full tournament squad. uad.
For this game — one Northern Ireland hadad to win — O’Neill madee five changes, some- thing he never did in qualifying. He dropped his principal centre forward, Kyle Lafferty, someone he has said hiss team would not haveve qualified without.
This was intervention tion on a remarkable scalele and only when substituteute Niall McGinn rammed in ththeiri second d goal in injury time was O’Neill able to say that it had worked.
He greeted that goal with a whirl that would not have looked out of place in a Belfast dance hall. It was hard to blame him, for this victory was enormous both in the context of a nation’s sporting history and its place in this competition.
In terms of the history, this was the first victory for Northern Ireland in a summer tournament since Gerry Armstrong’s goal beat Spain in the 1982 World Cup finals.
In the context of Group C, it has provided O’Neill and his players with fresh oxygen and they deserved it. The Irish were everything they weren’t against Poland: energetic and ambitious. They showed belief, resilience and conviction. In short, they were back to their old selves and it was enough.
The heroes, the faces on the highlight reels to be viewed down the years, were McGinn and opening goalscorer Gareth McAuley. The lat- ter soared beautifully to head in the first goal early in the second half. The West Bromwich defender is something of a specialist when it comes to these goals but this was a real Boy’s Own moment.
But the truth is that O’Neill drew top-drawer performances from all of his players. He had to. His goalkeeper Michael McGovern was faultless in poor conditions. Jonny Evans was equally certain out of position at left back, while Southampton midfielder Steven Davis was the game’s most assured creative force.
Early on, Ukraine were slightly superior to opposition that still looked a little nervous. The eastern Europeans were nowhere near as progressive or slick as Poland had been but Serhiy Sydorchuk robbed Oliver Norwood in the fifth minute to drive in a shot before Taras Stepanenko fired over from 25 yards.
A cross from Andriy Yarmolenko also looked dangerous, only for its intended target, Yevhen Seleznyov, to fail to make contact. After that came allow drive from Yaro-slav Rakitskiy that temporarily worried McGovern. Not a great Irish start, then, but this was a different O’Neill team, improved in every way.
Before half- time arrived, Craig Cathcart had headed narrorowly over and Davis had forced Ukraine go a goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov to parryuncom forta-bly. The emphasis of the game had changed and confirmation off that arrived in the 49th minute when McAuley met Norwood’s free-kick beautifully to give Northern Ireland the lead.
With the weather deteriorating, the teams briefly left the field to shelter from a hailstorm.
When they returned, Ukraine pressed hard for parity and McGovern saved a Seleznyov header and saw a Viktor Kovalenko half-volley fly wide. There was also a block from Norwood as Yevhen Konoplyanka let rip.
These were anxious moments for Irish hearts and with a touch of fortune Ukraine might have scored. As it was, it was the Irish who sealed it late on. Substitute Josh Magennis shot from 18 yards, Pyatov parried and McGinn ended the argument.
O’Neill will have slept better last night. His team have arrived in this tournament. That was all he ever wanted.