EVANS: WIN & WE’RE IN BUSINESS!

LEICESTER CITY’S Jonny Evans believes a win over Belarus in Belfast gifts Northern Ireland the best start possible to their Euro 2020 campaign. Maximum points from their opening two Group C fixtures would keep Michael

O’Neill’s men in the qualification mix alongside pool favourites Germany and Holland.

It would be the perfect platform ahead of June’s away double header in Estonia and Belarus, with tougher dates with the Germans and Dutch lying in wait next season.

“We want to put ourselves in a position where we have everything to play for going into the second half of the campaign,” said Evans.

“We talked about how important it was to get off to a good start and we’ve done that, but we’ve got to capitalise on that now.

“We have to look after the Belarus game, make sure we get three points and be in a position to turn our focus to the games in June.”

Evans says O’Neill has broken the group into bite sized targets and “two halves” with the German and Dutch dates looming in September, October and November.

“We’ve tried to break the group down into two halves really, with two double headers to start with against Estonia and Belarus,” he said.

“We can then analyse it when we get to the September, October and November fixtures when we have tough games against Holland and Germany.”

Evans has been impressed by young Leeds goalkeeper Bailey PeacockFarrell (inset) who is growing on confidence and made a crucial save to deny Estonia an equaliser.

Norwich City left-back Jamal Lewis and Kilmarnock winger Jordan Jones who have only 13 caps between them also impressed in the Group C opener.

“It’s good to see that we’ve got good young lads coming into the squad who are able to affect the team and push us forward,” he said.

EXCITED: Irish defender Jonny Evans