THE CRYING (NI LEAD 2-1) GAME

Chloe admits there’ll be tears one way or another tonight

CHLOE MCCARRON hopes the tears she sheds at Seaview this evening are of joy and not regret as Northern Ireland chase football folklore

It promises to be an emotional rollercoaster as Kenny Shiels’ squad bid to book their place at the Euro 2022 finals and a first ever outing at a major tournament.

Northern Ireland hold a crucial advantage over Ukraine in the playoffs following Friday’s first leg win in Kovalivka and are within touching distance of the promised land.

“I think either way I’ll be crying,” said Mccarron ahead of tonight’s return leg on the Shore Road. “It’s massive, not just for me, but for everybody else in the squad.

“It’s the biggest game of our careers and lives so far. For the older players as well, they may never face the likes of this again, so it’s a massive occasion for everybody.”

Northern Ireland, ranked 24 places below Ukraine on the FIFA ladder, are the lowest seeded team left in the competition with only 16 stepping out at next year’s finals.

They were the 32nd ranked team of 48 in qualifying but finished second in a tough group below Norway but above Wales, Belarus and the Faroe Islands.

How much of a motivation has it been for Mccarron, who plays for

Birmingham City in the WSL, and her team-mates to prove the doubters wrong in recent months?

“It has been nice to kind of make people eat their own words,” said the 23-year-old from Coleraine.

“At the start of the qualifiers the majority of people ruled us out quite early.

“No one expected us to be here and a lot of people thought it would be Norway or Wales up there, even Belarus but not us. It’s nice to be in this position.

“A few years ago I couldn’t have seen this happening but since Kenny came in as manager there has been a change in mentality in the squad and that changed my mind.

“We’ve made a lot of positive changes and that has helped the group advance.”

On being 90 minutes away from playing potentially England, Germany or the Netherlands at Wembley or Old Trafford next year, Mccarron admitted: “It would be massive.

“We all know it’s there for us but we aren’t there yet.

“We can’t get carried away and we have to focus fully on Tuesday night.

“W e will be the underdog again but we want to make as much as we can of the occasion. We just want to get the job done now.”

CHASING A DREAM Chloe Mccarron on the ball last week and, below, victory joy in Ukraine players from top teams in Europe. “Sixteen of our squad are amateurs, part-timers who work in B&Q, in hospitals as nurses. We have a prison officer and a policewoman. They are working people. “When you think of Leicester winning the league title at odds of 5,000/1, what an achievement that was, but that was done with money. Ours isn’t. “If we go the final furlong, it would be a remarkable achievement. To achieve something like that would outshine anything else I can think of.” Liverpool striker Rachel Furness (inset), who limped off shortly after scoring the opener in Friday’s 2-1 win in Ukraine, is a major doubt with an ankle injury.

any sporting event in the UK. “When you look at what the girls have done so far and put it into context, they have beaten professional players who have played for Manchester City, Arsenal and Wolfsburg. “We are talking about players from Glentoran, Cliftonville, Linfield and Crusaders competing against