With Northern Ireland two games away from qualification for the 2026 World Cup, manager Michael O’Neill has told his players not to “waste this opportunity”.
It’s certainly not a straightforward path to North America as O’Neill’s side travel to Italy for their play-off semi-final on 26 March and, should they stun the Azzurri, they will then travel to either Wales of Bosnia-Herzegovina five days later for a winner-takes-all final.
Italy have not qualified for a World Cup since the 2014 edition in Brazil, with Northern Ireland absent from the big dance since 1986 when it was last held in Mexico – one of the three host nations next year alongside Canada and the USA.
Although O’Neill’s side has a young age profile, the Northern Ireland manager has no fears his side can rise to the challenge in the play-off and, despite defeats away by Germany and Slovakia in the group phase, feels his side showed enough on the road to suggest they can spring the surprise.
“It’s difficult to win away in international football and that is something this team still has to develop, but I take a lot of encouragement from the performances in Cologne and Slovakia where we were challenged and were missing key players in those games,” he said.
“We still gave a really good account of ourselves and were in the game in Germany for 70, 75 minutes. We were in the game in Slovakia right to the end and felt a little big aggrieved by the nature of that result.
“We have to make the game as difficult as possible for Italy and it will be difficult for them with the expectation they carry into the game.
“If we can add to that with how we play the game and the level of our performance, then who knows. We have an opportunity to go to a World Cup and we have to do everything possible to try to take it. What I will say to them [players] is ‘don’t waste the opportunity.'”
