Northern Ireland v Israel

‘ISRAEL ARE ALWAYS CAPABLE OF DOING GOOD THINGS’ Former Israel international Ronny Rosenthal is hoping for a brighter future for the Blue and Whites, who haven’t graced a major tournament since the World Cup in 1970.

Ronny Rosenthal played for Spurs, Liverpool and Watford

also at White Hart Lane while Northern Ireland legend Pat Jennings was the club’s goalkeeping coach. “I played in the same team as Gerard McMahon for a number of seasons before that. He was a fantastic young player, and technically very good.” Having become a full member of UEFA back in 1994, Israel first entered into the qualifying phase for the European Championships that same year but failed to make UEFA Euro 1996. They are still yet to reach the finals of the competition after six qualification campaigns, while they last graced the World Cup back in 1970. “The talent is there (in the current Israeli national team),” insisted Rosenthal, who has worked as a football consultant since retiring from playing in 1999 and also represents his son Dean’s agency Interfoot. “On their day Israel are always capable of doing good things but they have lacked the consistency to secure one of the top two spots in a qualifying group. I have read a lot of things about (new manager) Andi Herzog and hopefully he can help steer the team in the right direction. “But certainly Northern Ireland have enjoyed a better recent history than Israel, having done so well to make it to Euro 2016 for example.” Words Andy Greeves

Shortly after celebrating his 21st birthday, Rosenthal made his international debut for Israel as a substitute in a 2-0 victory over Luxembourg on December 19, 1984. The Haifa-born forward soon became a regular in the Blue and Whites squad, winning 60 caps and scoring eleven goals through until 1997. “One of the best matches I was involved in for Israel was a 3-2 win over France in Paris in a World Cup qualifier (October 13, 1993),” explained Rosenthal, who represented club sides such as Maccabi Haifa, Club Brugge, Standard Liege, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Watford during his career. “We never got to the World Cup, but we came very close to reaching Italia ’90. We faced Colombia in a play-off match to decide who would go to the tournament. We lost 1-0 away in the first leg (October 15, 1989). In the second leg (October 30, 1989) I had one of my best matches in an Israel shirt, creating chance after chance, but we just couldn’t score the goals we needed as the match finished 0-0.” Rosenthal played against 28 different nations at international level during his career, including England, Scotland and Wales but never Northern Ireland. He was team-mates with a number of players who have worn the famous green shirt though, such as Gerry McMahon and Paul McVeigh at Spurs. “Paul McVeigh got into the first team in my last season at Spurs,” explained Rosenthal, who was

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