Northern Ireland v Cyprus (12/06/2020)

GOOD AFTERNOON Welcome to the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park for what will be our fourth senior men’s international match in 11 days. Today we welcome Cyprus to Northern Ireland, one week after we played them in Larnaca.

One of the outworkings of the decision to make Qatar the host of FIFA World Cup 2022 was, of course, that the World Cup final tournament was moved from its usual summer slot and this unprecedented quadruple header was shoehorned into the calendar for June. There is no getting away from the fact that we are disappointed with the return of only one point from three matches in the UEFA Nations League so far. As top seeds in our group, we would have expected significantly more, however here we are at the halfway point of the series in third place with one draw. Taking the glass half empty perspective, this is not where we want to be. Taking the other view, however, we have played all three teams in the group now and realistically there is nothing to be scared of in our Nations League opponents. It is clear we are a squad in transition now, as evidenced by the number of young players Ian has given debuts to in this last 11 days. Ian has a track record of bringing young players through into the senior squad, and when we are able to bring back some of the more experienced players who have been on the treatment table in recent weeks then we will hopefully again be a force to be reckoned with. The experience gained during this window by the likes of Conor Bradley, Shea Charles, Conor

McMenamin and Brodie Spencer is something that endless training sessions cannot provide and will stand them in good stead for their future club and international careers. As this is our last game before UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 in England next month, I would like to salute again Kenny Shiels and his squad for the incredible achievement of taking us to our first ever senior women’s finals. When we take the field against Norway in Southampton on 7 July there will be thousands of the GAWA in attendance and a whole country behind Marissa as she leads the team out . As everyone knows, we are the lowest ranked country in the tournament , and the only one without a professional squad, so making it to the finals is a huge achievement in itself. To make sure we give the best account of ourselves that we can, we have operated a full time training camp in Belfast since the start of January and we hope that this will allow us to go into the tournament with confidence. Our other group stage opponents are Austria on 11 July and host nation England on 15 July. Good luck to Kenny and the entire squad. Enjoy the match today.

PATRICK NELSON CHIEF EXECUT IVE IRISH FOOTBALL ASSOCIAT ION

IRISHFA.COM

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