Northern Ireland v Lithuania (12/11/2021)

GOOD EVENING Welcome to the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park for tonight’s match against Lithuania, the first instalment of a double header in Belfast, with newly minted European champions Italy due to visit us on Monday.

It is no secret that we are disappointed that we can’t now qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, however tonight we have the opportunity to lay down a marker for our next campaign. In September we won 4-1 in Vilnius, and another win this evening would set the stage very nicely for the final match against Italy. Our latest World Cup qualification campaign has been mixed: a good second half against Italy in Parma in March, a poor second half against Bulgaria in Sofia last month would be among the contrasting fortunes we have experienced this year. The absence of some of our key players has been keenly felt , with Jonny Evans in particular being missed in recent months, and it is a pleasure to welcome Jonny back into the squad this week. As all football managers will say, however, injuries offer opportunities to other players, and we have been buoyed by the emergence of the likes of Daniel Ballard, Conor Bradley, Ciaron Brown, Shayne Lavery and Ali McCann this year, all of whom have performed well in the green shirt . As we look forward to the next two years of competition, it is worth noting that we have decided that Ian Baraclough should continue to be the man at the helm of the senior men’s national team.

We feel confident that Ian has gained valuable international management experience in his tenure so far, and that we will perform to our expectations in upcoming competitions. On 16 December we will learn who our competitive opponents for 2022 will be, as the UEFA Nations League draw takes place on that day in Montreux. The f low of international games will be a little different next year given FIFA’s decision to move the World Cup finals tournament to December. This means we will have two friendly games in March, four UEFA Nations League games in June and the final two UEFA Nations League games in September. On the subject of draws, on 28 October we learned that our senior women’s national team’s opponents at the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 finals will be Norway, Austria and host nation England. All of our group games will be held at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, which is a great city to be located in. I’m sure the GAWA will be over in force and it will be a summer to remember! Enjoy the game tonight .

PATRICK NELSON CHIEF EXECUT IVE IRISH FOOTBALL ASSOCIAT ION

IRISHFA.COM

7