Northern Ireland v Germany

PRESIDENT’S WELCOME

On behalf of the Irish Football Association it gives me great pleasure to welcome the officials, players and supporters of Germany to Belfast and to our National Football Stadium in particular for this evening’s UEFA Euro 2020 Group C qualifying match.

The summer appears to have passed us by very quickly and we are now at the latter stages of a group phase for the third competition in a row with the opportunity to progress to the final tournament. That in itself is a significant achievement, but of course qualification is everyone’s dream. Those four straight wins home and away against Estonia and Belarus, which have pushed us to the summit of Group C, effectively leave a three- country mini group for the two qualification places from the group. The mandatory friendly last Thursday night against Luxembourg, which Northern Ireland won 1-0, afforded our manager an opportunity to begin his preparations for tonight’s qualifier. Germany arrive in Belfast having lost to the Netherlands on Friday night, which means they are second in the group with nine points from four matches, while the Dutch are third with six points from three games. It’s all very exciting as the Netherlands also play this evening in Estonia. Our long association with German football spans 61 years, with 17 internationals during that time. Germany (whether as West Germany or a unified nation) have prevailed in 11 of those matches, while Northern Ireland won both UEFA Euro 1984 qualifiers and there have been four draws, the last of which was in Nuremberg in November 1996.

It was that long association and friendships made over the years which saw Germany travel to Belfast in June 2005 and play a friendly international as the Irish Football Association celebrated its 125th anniversary. More recently we played each other in the Euro finals of 2016 in France and also in the qualifiers for FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. Both sides, and especially the German team, have changed considerably since the last occasion we played each other. That was in October 2017 when Germany won 3-1. Every competitive game since we opened the stadium in 2016 has sold out and this game has been no different, such is the demand for tickets. The support for the team has been outstanding both home and away in the four qualifiers to date and I am looking forward to more excellent vocal support again tonight. I hope everyone enjoys an exciting game of football. Have a safe journey home. David J Martin President Irish Football Association

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