Northern Ireland record comfortable win to start Nations League campaign

Northern Ireland got their Nations League campaign off to a winning start by beating Luxembourg 2-0 at Windsor Park on Thursday.

Paddy McNair opened the scoring 11 minutes in, prodding home an effort from a corner, before Dan Ballard added a second five minutes later, flicking on a George Saville free-kick.

It was a comfortable night on home soil for Northern Ireland as they recorded their second win in 17 Nations League matches.

But it is a fourth in six for head coach Michael O’Neill, who is relying on youth to prevail during his second stint in charge.

Sunderland defender Trai Hume was handed the armband after Jonny Evans announced his international retirement recently, and the 22-year-old did not have much to do across the night.

Liverpool’s Conor Bradley was a bright spark at right-back, getting into several dangerous positions and almost bagging a goal himself, but for a strong Christopher Martins clearance.

“A good night’s work.” 👏

The boss reacts to tonight’s win 💚 #GAWA pic.twitter.com/yJssWPSFee

— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) September 5, 2024

O’Neill was delighted with the performance and says his players are finally starting to feel like winners following a tough period of transition.

He said: “”We have [momentum]. Confidence is growing and a lot of these lads came into international football and didn’t win a lot of games at the outset.

“Now they are starting to know how it feels to win. You can see in the dressing room what it means to them.

“A lot of them are going to have long international careers. There are always periods with Northern Ireland where you don’t win, and play through some difficult times. The best players have always had to do that.

“There is a lot of growth to come in the team, there’s no doubt about that.

“We have to keep letting them develop naturally themselves and not put too much pressure on them. Hopefully they will take that into games and give good performances.”

Northern Ireland will be hoping to keep their momentum going when they travel to Bulgaria on Sunday.

Their opponents played out a 0-0 draw with Belarus on the same night, but will have their eyes on a victory at home in Group C3.