Northern Ireland v Germany

DID YOU KNOW? Tonight’s game against Germany will be the 250th international played at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park. Here Marshall Gillespie delves into the archives to unearth some fascinating facts about games played on the hallowed turf…

There have only ever been four hat-tricks scored by Northern Ireland players at Windsor Park. The first came on 26 October 1960 from Bolton Wanderers striker Billy McAdams in a 4-3 World Cup qualifying defeat to West Germany. Five years later Johnny Crossan scored three in a 4-1 victory in another World Cup tie, this time against Albania. In May 1971 the late, great George Best fired home a 12-minute hat-trick in a 4-1 success over Cyprus in a European Championship tie. Undoubtedly the most famous treble though was David Healy’s on 6 September 2006 when Lawrie Sanchez’s side beat a multi-talented Spain 3-2 in a EURO 2008 qualifying match on a memorable night at Windsor.

Northern Ireland have played 119 World Cup and EURO qualifying matches at the stadium since 1949, winning a total of 59 of them and losing just 36. Their complete record, which also includes British Home International games, friendlies and Nations League matches, is as follows: P W D L F A 248 95 56 97 317 345

The first ever full international match at the stadium was against Scotland in a British Home International contest played on Saturday 10 March 1910. The home side ran out 1-0 victors that day thanks to a 54th minute winner from Linfield forward Frank Thompson. It was also Ireland’s first ever win over Scotland on home soil.

A total of 130 players from Ireland/Northern Ireland have scored a goal at Windsor Park since the first international at the ground in 1910. Our all-time top goalscorer David Healy also holds the record of having scored the most international goals at the stadium with 19. He scored a total of 10 in front of the East Stand and nine in front of the West Stand (aka The Kop). The all-time top goalscorers at Windsor Park are: David Healy 19 (1 pen) Kyle Lafferty 13 Steven Davis 10 (1 pen) Jimmy Quinn 10 (1 pen) Johnny Crossan 9 (4 pens)

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