Northern Ireland v Italy (15/11/2021)

WORDS: WILLIAM CAMPBELL

The twin defensive pillars of Georgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci were first choices in everyone’s team of the finals and provided an object lesson for young defenders. It was when they congratulated each other and celebrated when they blunted another attack that their determination and joy in preventing a goal was clear for all to see. Football is, of course, a game won by goals, but if you can stop your opponents from scoring you have travelled halfway to success. Billy Bingham based his successful teams of the 1980s on a resolute defence marshalled most of the time by the seemingly invincible Pat Jennings. Stop them from scoring and we always have a chance to nick one at the other end. George Graham’s Arsenal were notorious for the ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ mantra which remained in place when Arsene Wenger brought the attacking flair of Bergkamp, Anelka and Henry to bear at the other end, but the basis of the team’s success was Tony Adams and co with their ‘ They Shall Not Pass’ attitude. Both Chiellini and Bonucci played in Belfast the last time the Italians came to town back in October 2010, blunting our David Healy-led attack in a scoreless draw. Perhaps tonight some of their magic can rub off on our younger defenders. Another Northern Ireland clean sheet would certainly be celebrated, while a goal at the other end is long overdue as we have not tasted victory over our visitors since 1958! So welcome to the European champions (with or without their trophy) . Let’s hope they will leave the stadium knowing they have been in a game!

There is an iconic photograph of Bobby Moore leading the England team on to Windsor Park whilst he is holding the Jules Rimet Trophy.

The Northern Ireland team (including George Best) have formed a guard of honour to applaud England on to the pitch. The date was October 1966 and England (in case you have not heard) had won the World Cup in July that year. Interestingly it was the exact same 11 players who lifted the trophy at Wembley a few months earlier who played in Belfast , and they trotted out 2-0 victors in the game in which Linfield’s Billy Ferguson was sent off. Thirty-three years later in August 1999 the ‘new’ FIFA World Cup trophy arrived in Belfast with the champions France who had been victorious in Paris a year earlier. The trophy was escorted on a lap of the stadium prior to kick-off by the mascot for the night . It was a friendly match in preparation for the Euro 2000 qualification games and in a rather lacklustre affair the French came out with a 1-0 win. As we can see our history with World Cup trophies in our stadium is not all that good, so perhaps we should have asked our Italian visitors to leave the Henri Delauney Trophy back in Rome rather than bring it on their charter plane to Belfast (if they did so!) . We are happy to welcome the worthy reigning European champions. They lit up the trans-Europe summer tournament with both their pace and attacking flair and with their ruthless and effective defending.

IRISHFA.COM

25