And here’s Julian taylor’s match report
Right, I’m off. It’s been memorable. Thanks for sharing it with me. Here’s a match report for you. Bye!
Gareth McAuley talks to Sky, and is asked what has carried them to qualification:
It’s pure hard work. It is a squad, it’s a team. We aren’t blessed with world-class individuals but we’re a strong unit, and the spirit, the belief to do it has been there right from the start, and it’s unbelievable to be able to say that we’re going to France.
Big Josh, as well, coming in and making his first start. He’s the heart and soul of the squad and I’m so pleased for him.
There’s been some highs for me in individual games, but right from the game against these away there was a real belief that we could get over the line, and I can’t put into words what it means right now.
So if the Republic win in Poland on Sunday, they too will have qualified. Crikey.
The Republic of Ireland have beaten the World Champions 1-0.
Michael O’Neill gets the bumps while Josh Magennis is interviewed on Sky:
I can’t put it into words, I really can’t. I dreamed this moment. Just to be part of a team that qualified, but to grab a goal and do it convincingly against a great European side, it’s unbelievable. We’d worked on set pieces all week, and it came off my head and it was just euphoric.
It’s just unbelievable team belief. Outsiders always say that we might not be the best quality, but we’ve got that never give up attitude. We’re just fighters, and when you put it together we’re a formidable team. It’s unbelievable.
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“No more Maybe Next Time,” writes a (presumably) jubilant Gary Hughes.
The match in Romania has indeed ended 1-1. Hungary lead the Faroe Islands 2-1 in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Steven Davis’s reaction:
It was an unbelievable night. First half we maybe rode our luck a little bit, second half we showed how good we are. We stuck to our game plan, created a number of chances and lucky enough we got a couple.
It’s a dream come true to do it here. There’s no better place to do it, in front of our own fans who’ve pushed us all the way. All the lads were desperate to get ourselves there. It’s a huge achievement for the lads and for the country.
The manager’s been magnificent since he came in. His preparation, his attention to detail.
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Northern Ireland have qualified for Euro 2016!!! Final score: Northern Ireland 3-1 Greece
90+4 mins: It’s all over! Or rather, it’s all about to begin!
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GOAL! Romania 1-1 Finland
90+3 mins: A stoppage-time equaliser in Romania will deny Northern Ireland first place in the group until the weekend at least.
90+3 mins: It’s time to start taking the wiry thing off your Champagne bottles now.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time we go, and there’ll be three minutes of it. “I’m a RoI fan sitting on the runway at Malaga Airport going to miss the last ten mins,” writes John. “They say you need to be Irish to know the world will break your heart eventually – hope not!”
89 mins: Northern Ireland win a free kick, deep on the right wing, an take an age over it before taking it short and playing it slowly back to the goalkeeper.
88 mins: Romania are still a goal down at home to Finland. Northern Ireland are staring down the barrel of a glory-gun, with just a few minutes to go until the trigger is pulled.
GOAL! Northern Ireland 3-1 Greece
86 mins: It’s that chipped ball over the defence again, and this time Torosidis is just onside, and his low centre is turned in by Aravidis. Just a consolation, surely.
85 mins: I’d miscounted my substitutions – Northern Ireland have one more, and they’ll spend it on bringing Luke McCullough on for McNair.
83 mins: Even the Guardian’s editor is getting excited by all this British/Irish international excellence.
Ireland! Scotland!
— Katharine Viner (@KathViner) October 8, 2015
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82 mins: It’s turning into a pretty good night for the Republic of Ireland as well – they’ve been under the cosh for the majority of their game against Germany, but Shane Long has put them 1-0 up, with 15 minutes to play.
81 mins: The end to the substitutions, McGinn replacing Ward.
80 mins: Ireland work space on the right, with nice work from Norwood and Davis, and the former’s low cross is cleared to the latter, whose shot pings about a bit before falling to McNair, who shoots wide.
78 mins: A further substitution, Magennis being roared off the pitch as Liam Boyce comes on.
76 mins: One last substitution for the Greeks, Mitroglou coming off and Athanasiadis coming on. Meanwhile Böde has scored again, and Hungary lead the Faroes 2-1.
76 mins: It ends with Davis tapping the ball to his right for Corry Evans to run on to, but his shot flies wide.
75 mins: And the home side knock the ball around a bit, to delighted “Olé”ing from the fans.
75 mins: A good cross from Holebas is headed away by his club team-mate, Cathcart.
72 mins: The goals are flying in around Europe, but in Belfast the action has dried up a bit. Greece are currently passing the ball around their back four. And Jared Brown has come over all Michael Jackson for some reason.
@Simon_Burnton "I'm Böde, I'm Böde. Shamon!"
— Jared Brown (@BrownSthlm) October 8, 2015
71 mins: Pelkas replaces Kone, and thus makes his international debut.
70 mins: Indeed, if all scores stay as they are, I do believe Northern Ireland will win the group tonight. Incredible scenes.
69 mins: And in the group’s other game it’s now Romania 0-1 Finland, which is a boost for Northern Ireland’s hopes of topping the group.
68 mins: What a chance! Magennis looks to be running totally clear, but Papastathopoulos somehow overhauls a five-yard deficit and slides the ball behind for a corner.
67 mins: It’s now Hungary 1-1 Faroe Islands, Böde equalising.
66 mins: It’s still 0-1 in Hungary, not that it’s likely to matter. Scotland, meanwhile, have come back from conceding an early goal to lead Poland 2-1 at home, scoring two absolute stonkers.
65 mins: A substitution for Greece, with Mantalos replacing Karelis.
63 mins: Greece go down the other end, tricks his way past Chris Brunt – who sticks out an arm and tries to pull him back, inside the penalty area. He only needed to fall over to win a penalty there, but instead he shoots hopelessly straight at the keeper.
63 mins: Northern Ireland break, and a ball towards Magennis from the right instead finds Evans on the left, but his re-cross is cleared.
60 mins: That’s three goals in two games for Steven Davis, improbably.
Steven Davis - no goals since Feb 2014, then scores as #SaintsFC shock #CFC & a brace to secure Northern Ireland's place at Euro 2016
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) October 8, 2015
GOAL! Northern Ireland 3-0 Greece
58 mins: If that’s the icing on the cake, that’s some extraordinarily tasty icing! Brunt’s corner is headed away from goal but straight onto Davis’s head, and he pushes it straight back again, and in at the far post!
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58 mins: A chipped cross from the right, and though for once Magennis doesn’t win the header, he does bully Papastathopoulos into conceding a corner.
7 - Northern Ireland have scored more goals from set pieces than any other side in Euro 2016 qualifying (excluding penalties). Routine.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 8, 2015
56 mins: Greece have a good spell of possession, but there’s little whistling and booing this time. Everyone’s too busy partying. It ends with a nice chipped pass from midfield over the defence to Torosidis, who’s just offside.
53rd minute: Hungary, meanwhile, have made two half-time substitutions, QPR’s Daniel Tozser one of those hooked, and kicked off the second half a few minutes after they did in Belfast. It remains 0-1 then, with 40 minutes to play.
Josh Magennis was first called up by Northern Ireland as a goalkeeper six years ago, now the potential matchwinner. Great story.
— Andy Hunter (@AHunterGuardian) October 8, 2015
52nd minute: That’s a first international goal for Josh Magennis. Nice timing.
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GOAL! Northern Ireland 2-0 Greece
50 mins: Magennis scores! And he appears to be weeping! It was deliberate enough, but not precisely controlled – a looping backwards header from Norwood’s corner that flies perfectly over Aravidis’s desperate leap on the line and plops into the back of the net!
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48 mins: Magennis seems to be more irritant than genuine goal threat, but he’s certainly doing that job well enough, buzzing about defenders and into space. He forces a throw-in, from which Evans crosses and Greece concede another corner.
47 mins: Cathcart wins the header, but sends it over!
47 mins: And precisely 60 seconds into the second half, Jamie Ward wins a corner. One more goal and it’s really party time.
46 mins: And they are back under way!
The players are back out, and Northern Ireland are 45 minutes from booking their trip to France.
It was Chris Brunt who was responsible for that late block, Greece having launched a four-on-three break, after which Mitroglou hit the post with a lovely shot from the edge of the area.
In other news, it’s Romania 0-0 Finland, and the first half of the night has gone just about perfectly for Michael O’Neill, down to the last-minute reminder to keep on their toes.
Also half time: Hungary 0-1 Faroe Islands
Ludicrous end to the half there, but somehow Northern Ireland cling on to their lead. As do the Faroe Islands!
Half time: Northern Ireland 1-0 Greece
45+1 mins: What a block! And then Greece hit the post! And then the referee blows his whistle!
45 mins: There seem to be a lot of cheerful people in Windsor Park this evening. And Rory McIlroy is among them.
43 mins: Magennis has another shot, from perhaps 20 yards, but it skids wide of the near post.
41 mins: Chance for Greece! They cross from the left and it somehow finds its way to Mitroglou, who is literally swinging his boot with the goal at his mercy when Davis gets in the way.
39 mins: Another free-kick from deep for Northern Ireland, another header won in the box. It goes well wide, but the home side are winning everything in the air here.
37 mins: Hilariously off-target shot of the day! Northern Ireland swing in a free-kick from the left, and when it’s headed out Brunt storms in and smacks it so far wide it goes for a throw-in 20 yards from the touchline.
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GOAL! Northern Ireland 1-0 Greece!
36 mins: Steven Davis scores for Northern Ireland! A lovely pass from Corry Evans in the middle, Dallas centres from the right and Steven Davis slides in from five yards out!
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33 mins: A sniff of a chance for Greece there, but a home head gets in the way of the ball and heads behind for a corner, from which McGovern is again called upon to make a save. Northern Ireland need to guard against complacency here, their evening could get much worse very quickly.
32 mins: Half an hour played, and Hungary have had a shot on target. They still trail 1-0 at home to the Faroe Islands, and as it stands Northern Ireland are through. Back in Belfast, they hoist a free-kick from deep into the area and Magennis heads wide from distance.
30 mins: Oooh! Torosidis pops up in the nick of time to deny Dallas a great shooting chance! The referee continues to let slightly rough challenges go. In Holland, Bas Nijhuis is mainly famous for this incident:
27 mins: Greece do some half-hearted attacking. They get numbers forward well enough, but don’t seem enormously bothered about working the ball into any kind of dangerous area, and McGovern eventually catches the right-wing cross.
25 mins: Chance! And then another chance! First a little bit of penalty-area ping-pong sees a left-wing cross bounce off a defender to Magellan, whose first-time shot would have gone in had it not hit Moras on the goal-line. Northern Ireland then win the header from the corner, but it goes wide.
24 mins: Corry Evans tries to chase down the ball as it bounces towards the left-hand corner, only for Papastathopoulos to quite deliberately shoulder-barge him out of play. The referee waves play on.
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23 mins: Having said that, they’ve just had their best couple of minutes. They couldn’t get the ball into the box, though, and eventually conceded a free-kick for handball.
20 mins: Greece may well have been pretty bad for the whole qualifying campaign, but currently they look like a pretty bad side that can’t really be bothered.
19 mins: Chance! From the free-kick Ward is found, all on his own in the penalty area, but he sends the diving header well wide from 12 yards.
18 mins: Samaris gives the ball away with some hopeless ball control and then takes out Jamie Ward to stop the attack. He could very easily have been booked for that, but wasn’t. One of those that would probably have been a booking in the second half of a game.
15 mins: Save! Greece win a corner, Papastathopoulos heads on and it’s nearly turned in at the far post! Tziolis heads down but too close to McGovern, who shovels it out!
15 mins: According to Uefa’s statistics, that was the first shot on target in the Hungary v Faroes game, and only the second of any sort.
GOAL! Hungary 0-1 Faroe Islands
13 mins: Hungary are losing! Jakobsen has put the Faroes ahead there, and the Hungarians now need to score two just to keep the pressure on Northern Ireland!
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11 mins: Magennis gets the ball in the box, chests it down and by the time he’s got it under control a defender’s snaffled it away. To his credit, though, he hassles said defender into conceding a throw-in.
9 mins: Greece attack, and perhaps Karelis would have got onto the ball in the penalty area, but he fell over the already-fallen-over Brunt, and the referee doesn’t see it as a foul (though Brunt did seem to stick out a foot there).
8 mins: Greece keep the ball for a while, to much whistling and booing.
7 mins: From which they win another corner, from which they don’t do much.
6 mins: A decent, composed start from the hosts. They’ve just won another corner as well, which Norwood will take from the right.
3 mins: Stuart Dallas does win a corner for N Ireland, but Brunt overhits his kick, and though it does drop for Norwood, it’s from a way out and an unpromising angle. He has a decent effort anyway, but it whizzes past the far post.
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2 mins: The ball’s booted down the right, flicked into the box and it looks for a moment as if it’s going to open up for Magennis, but Papastathopoulos pokes the ball behind, and the referee awards a goal kick.
2 mins: Greece were booed and whistled and jeered for as long as it took them to give the ball away. Hostile stuff.
And we're off!
1 min: Holland’s Bas Nijhuis blows his whistle, and Greece get the ball rolling.
The anthems have been sung, and we’re but moments away from action.
The teams are lining up, we are minutes away from kick-off!! #NIRvGRC pic.twitter.com/jHNWMpSt7K
— Official Irish FA (@OfficialIrishFA) October 8, 2015
The players are in the tunnel. This is happening.
Michael O’Neill speaks:
As I said to them, you’re not always in control of the result but you’re in control of your performance. If they show that same desire, I’m sure that’ll be enough to get the result we want.
The changes are enforced upon us. We brought Paddy McNair in at right-back and he gives us great quality in that area. Craig slots in nicely for Jonny, and he’s had an excellent start to the season. Corry is a natural replacement in midfield, and Josh will give us pace and power up front.
Must say, if Craig Cathcart’s your back-up centre-back you’re not doing too badly – he’s been excellent for Watford so far this season. Josh Magennis, the converted goalkeeper who plays up front, is a bit more of an unknown quantity for me, I must admit …
And here’s a text-based version of the teams, for those who can’t look at big pictures:
Northern Ireland: McGovern, McNair, McAuley, Cathcart, Brunt, Corry Evans, Ward, Norwood, Davis, Dallas, Magennis. Subs: Carroll, Hodson, Ferguson, McCullough, Reeves, McGinn, Grigg, McKay, McCourt, McArdle, Boyce, Mannus.
Greece: Karnezis, Torosidis, Moras, Papastathopoulos, Holebas, Tziolis, Samaris, Karelis, Kone, Aravidis, Mitroglou. Subs: Kapino, Kitsiou, Stafylidis, Pelkas, Fortounis, Vyntra, Tzanetopoulos, Tachtsidis, Mantalos, Athanasiadis, Vellidis.
Referee: Bas Nijhuis (Holland)
News just in from the BBC. Well, recently in.
A couple from Carrickfergus have planned their wedding day around Northern Ireland’s crucial European qualifier against Greece.
Stephen Rodgers and his new wife, Alison, tied the knot earlier on Thursday, and do not plan to miss out on any of the sporting action.
The football fanatic duo have arranged for the historic game to be played on a big screen at their reception, and will save their first dance for the half time whistle.
They are hoping that a win from Northern Ireland will be the icing on their cake.
Speaking to the BBC, Stephen said; “The plan is we’ll have the meal and then the match kicks off.
“At half time we’ll have our first dance and then the second half of the match and then just party the rest of the night.”
Looks like it’s been a great day for Belfast’s garlic merchants.
Rest assured I’ll also be keeping a close eye on goings on in Budapest, where Hungary host the Faroes in the evening’s other key Group F game, and for that matter on Romania v Finland. A big night, sure enough.
The teams!
Here’s tonight’s official team sheet:
Hello world!
So, here we are then. Belfast is braced for a party. Jonny Evans is injured, Kyle Lafferty, Chris Baird and Conor McLaughlin are suspended, Northern Ireland are playing the top seeds in their group and they’re still extremely confident of winning. Just consider that for a moment, and mull over what it says about the transformation of the Northern Ireland team (and the Greece one, for that matter) over the last couple of years.
“I genuinely believe that we have the players to step in and deal with this game, in terms of dealing with the situation with Jonny not being available, and also with the suspensions we have,” says Michael O’Neill. “There are some players who have waited a long time for their opportunity and they’re going to get it in a massive game. Everyone is looking forward to it. The belief in the squad is fantastic.” Crikey.
Northern Ireland top group F by a point, but most importantly are four ahead of Hungary – who host the Faroe Islands tonight – with two games to play. In other words, if O’Neill’s side win tonight they are through, but if Hungary don’t win they are through anyway (should Hungary draw and Northern Ireland lose they might conceivably end up tied together on 17 points, in which case the Irish would go through by virtue of their superior head-to-head record; if Romania, Hungary and Northern Ireland all finish on 17 points, which is feasible if unlikely, Romania would win the head-to-head mini-league, with Northern Ireland second).
But let’s not get carried away. Hungary should beat the Faroe Islands tonight, but while Greece have been execrable they hold the unusual distinction of being less abysmal on their travels than they are at home, having lost all four games at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis but only one of four away games (in the Faroe Islands, unpredictably). The other three were all drawn, with both Romania and Hungary held 0-0. Should Hungary win tonight while Northern Ireland do not, O’Neill would have to find a way of following Romania and Hungary to victory in Finland on Sunday.
In other words, it’s complicated. A home win tonight, though, and that’s when things can really take off.
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