World Cup setback as Irish suffer stalemate

IT might have only been Northern Ireland’s second game of their World Cup qualifying campaign but this is a result which puts a huge dent in their hopes of reaching Qatar.

With Italy, Switzerland and Lithuania making up the rest of Group C, qualification via the play-offs looked Northern Ireland’s most likely route to the 2022 tournament.

The hosts dominated the contest as captain Steve Davis made history with his 126th cap, making him the most capped British player. He overtook Peter Shilton’s record of 125.

Stuart Dallas, Paddy McNair, George Saville, Gavin Whyte and Josh Magennis all started at Windsor Park, meaning almost half of the home side’s line-up came from Yorkshire clubs.

Having lost 2-0 in Italy last week, last night’s result extended Ian Barraclough’s winless start as manager to 11 games.

Hull City’s Magennis had a few sights at goal in the first half but was unable to break the deadlock. He directed a closerange effort towards goal early on but it was gathered by Daniel Naumov in the Bulgaria goal.

Dallas hit the crossbar with a header midway through the first half. That was the closest either side came in the first half.

Bulgaria’s threat was meek before they were forced into a first-half change, losing captain Georgi Kostadinov to injury. He was replaced by Petar Vitanov.

Northern Ireland continued to look the more likely at the start of the second half with Magennis’s Hull team-mate Gavin Whyte lashing an effort towards goal which required a sprawling Naumov to kept it out.

Niall McGinn almost opened the scoring as he chested the ball down and aimed a volley towards goal but it was just wide.

In injury time, the visitors almost snatched victory when Dimitar Illiev sent a powerful header towards goal but PeacockFarrell made a fine save as both sides settled for a point.

■ England Under-21s suffered late heartbreak as they beat Croatia 2-1 but exited Euro 2021.

Domagoj Bradaric’s stoppagetime strike dumped the Young Lions out just as they looked to have pulled off a stunning recovery.

Ebere Eze’s early penalty and a second goal from Curtis Jones – who was sent off after the final whistle – almost booked a lasteight tie with Spain in May.

The Young Lions, who had lost their opening two Group D games, needed to win by two goals.